Boris Mikšić

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Boris Mikšić is a Croatian businessman and politician.

In the 1970s, Mikšić, a native of Zagreb, which was then part of Yugoslavia, emigrated to the United States of America. He settled in Minnesota where he gradually began his business. Through the years he became one of the wealthiest Croatian Americans.

He first ventured into Croatian politics as an independent candidate in the 2003 parliamentary elections.

In 2005 he ran as an independent candidate for Croatian president. His campaign was partly based on the image of a simple Zagreb youth who fulfilled the American Dream, and partly on opposition to ICTY and Eurosceptic views. Because of the latter being outside the mainstream political discourse in Croatia, few took his candidacy seriously, despite a lavish campaign.

On January 2nd, to the surprise of many, the first election projections showed him as winning 2nd place, knocking the government's candidate Jadranka Kosor out of the race. Almost immediately many commentators began to intrepret his success as a protest vote against the Croatian political establishment, embodied in corrupt political leaders and an inefficient administration. Mikšić, already wealthy, was perceived as more resistant to corruption.

However, only a few hours later, new projections, based on the votes cast by Croatian citizens in neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina, brought Jadranka Kosor to 2nd place. The next morning Mikšić proved to be as surprised with this result as most of the Croatian public. At first he refused to concede defeat and called his supporters to demonstrate on the streets over alleged vote fraud, probably inspired by the Orange Revolution in the Ukraine. However, the demonstrations proved to be completely disorganised, with groups of radicals protesting in front of the Croatian Democratic Union offices. Mikšić suddenly began to try to distance himself from the movement, and finally conceded a few days later.

When he conceded, he nevertheless announced his candidacy in local elections, including those for Zagreb City Assembly. His announcement was quickly followed with media reporters revealing his history of alleged spousal abuse, while most mainstream commentators described him as a charlatan and a dangerous populist.

This campaign appeared to have some effect on the 2005 local elections. His slate did enter the Zagreb City Assembly, but with fewer seats than expected.