Yugoslavia: A History of its Demise - Indymedia

34 THE TURNING POINT: 1986–87
area which had belonged to Hungary before the First World War. His father, a
teacher, lost his life in the Partisan struggle. Kučan’s family was Protestant.
Kučan studied law and began his political ascent by taking part in the communist
party’s university committee and holding office in the official League of
Communist Youth of Slovenia. Although he sympathized with Kavčič’s ideas, he
did not want to leave office in 1971. He is said to have confided in a trusted
colleague that he thought he could accomplish more inside the apparatus than
outside it. Especially important for his later undertakings was his lengthy
experience in Belgrade as a Slovenian representative in various organs of the
federal party.
One month after Kučan’s election, viz., in mid-May 1986, Croatia likewise
experienced a political transition. The pragmatically oriented party president
Mika Špiljak had been pushing for a scuttling of radicalism even before the
Croatian Tenth Party Congress, but the party leadership was divided and
constantly embrangled in polemics. Upon stepping down, Špiljak, who no longer
harbored any personal ambitions, put new voting procedures into effect which, in
combination with a secret ballot, would ensure that a number of the old party bigwigs
would no longer be elected to high office. That did not please everyone, but
it worked. The three most venomous demagogues of the post-1971 epoch—the
Serbs Milutin Baltić and Dušan Dragosavac, together with Croat Jure Bilić—
were removed from their offices. Moreover, Josip Vrhovec and Milka Planinc,
two other prominent Croatian party figures who had risen to prominence in the
wake of Tito’s attack on the “Croatian spring”, were not elected to the offices
which they had sought. 1 Stanko Stojčević, a colorless Serb born in 1929, was
elected new party president, while Drago Dimitrović, a young Croat from Split,
became the new secretary of the Croatian party presidium.
One could not call the new leadership team in Zagreb reform-oriented, but it
was at least pragmatic. Ante Marković, who had served as Croatian prime
minister since 1982 and who would later serve as Yugoslav prime minister, was
made a member of the Croatian presidency. Marković, a Croat by nationality,
had been born in Bosnian Konjica in 1924 and had spent the war engaged in
illegal work in the communist youth organization in Dubrovnik. He received his
diploma as an electrical engineer at the University of Zagreb in 1954, and
became General Director of the Rade Končar electrical firm (in Zagreb) in 1961.
In this role, he took a position clearly antagonistic toward the so-called
nationalists of the “Croatian Spring”. He played only a marginal part in the
political fights in Croatia at this time; his main interest was the economy. The
more economic issues dominated the agenda in Croatia, the stronger Marković’s
position became, until he was finally called, in 1982, to take the leadership post
in the Croatian government. How much Marković actually contributed to
political liberalization in Croatia is debatable. In Zagreb people said he had
already at that time a clear propensity to restrict his active involvement to
economics and to leave political decision-making to others.