Franjo Gregurić (; born 12 October 1939) is a Croatian politician who served as Prime Minister of Croatia from July 1991 to September 1992, leading a national unity government at the beginning of the Croatian War of Independence.
Gregurić was born in the Zagorje village of Lobor.
This is hailed as the greatest achievement of Gregurić's cabinet, while Gregurić himself enjoyed favourable reputation because of his mild manners and managerial skills. His cabinet was often taken as a great example of national unity under difficult situation.
Those achievements, however, must be taken into proper context. Foreign policy was in hands of Franjo Tuđman, while defence was in hands of Gojko Šušak and military officials responsible only to the President. That left Gregurić with more mundane tasks like issuing the first Croatian currency and setting up Croatian air traffic control and other institutions previously in the Yugoslav federal jurisdiction.
With the war generally perceived to be over and with prospects of new elections, the "Government of National Unity" began to fall apart. In February 1992, Gregurić's government proposed laws offering territorial autonomy to ethnic Serbs in Krajina in exchange for their formal recognition of Croatian sovereignty. Dražen Budiša, one of the government's ministers and the leader of Croatian Social Liberal Party, left the government in protest. This was followed by representatives of other parties, who gradually left the government.
By the end of his term, the cabinet of Franjo Gregurić again had members of only one party.
At parliamentary elections of 1992, Gregurić was elected as representative of HDZ and remained in that party.
Gregurić was later the president of the Croatian Firefighting Association between 1993 and 2000.
In May 2010, Gregurić was appointed the head of the Supervisory board at Institut IGH.
See also
- Cabinet of Franjo Gregurić