Biography

Milan Bandic was a Croatian politician who served as mayor of Zagreb from 2000 to 2002 and again from 2005 until his death in 2021.

He was both a prominent force within and one of the most popular members of the Social Democratic Party of Croatia (SDP), who gained further notoriety for a number of statements he made as mayor. In 2007 he unsuccessfully ran for the party president. However, he remained one of the main rivals of the former party president Zoran Milanovic. In 2009 he was expelled from the SDP party due to his violation of the party's bylaws. He then ran on a populist platform to become Croatian president in the 2010 election in which he lost to the SDP candidate Ivo Josipovic. Bandic is viewed as having been a hands-on mayor because of his ambition and the number of projects related to Zagreb that he undertook. During his term as mayor he worked on the Arena Zagreb and Homeland Bridge which opened during his third term, and the Ljubljanska Avenue (now Zagrebacka Avenue) was renovated.

Bandic was arrested in the evening hours of 19 October 2014, along with 18 other officials, under the suspicion of malfeasance related to Zagreb Holding. In his absence, his deputy Sandra Svaljek took the duties of mayor from 19 October 2014 until 26 March 2015. Bandic canceled the authorization that he granted to her because of some disagreements between them.[8][9] Consequently, Svaljek resigned all of her duties in city. Bandic's second deputy Vesna Kusin took the duties of mayor on 26 March 2015. On 10 April 2015, the Zagreb County Court ruled that Bandic had to be released from prison while his trial was pending trial. Consequently, he returned to the position of mayor.
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