Boris Mikšić (born 11 October 1948 in Zagreb) is a Croatian businessman and politician.
Mikšić was born in Zagreb, then part of SFR Yugoslavia. He graduated from the University of Zagreb Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture in 1973. He then emigrated to the United States of America, settling in Minnesota where he gradually began his business creating the Cortec Corporation.[1] Over the years he became one of the wealthiest Croatian Americans. He first ventured into the Croatian politics as an independent candidate in the 2003 parliamentary elections.
In 2005, he ran as an independent candidate on the Croatian presidential elections. His campaign was partially based on his autobiography Američki san dečka s Trešnjevke (American dream of a kid from Trešnjevka) that he had published in 1994 - creating image of a simple Zagreb youth, who fulfilled so called American Dream.[1] It was also based on his opposition to the ICTY and Eurosceptic views. Because the last was outside the mainstream political view in Croatia, few took him seriously, despite the lavish campaign he was able to pay for.
On 2 January, to the surprise of many, first election projections showed him as winning 2nd place, knocking the government's candidate Jadranka Kosor out of the race. Immediately many commentators began to interpret his success as a protest vote against the Croatian political establishment, engulfed in corruption and being notoriously inefficient. As if Mikšić, already wealthy has been seen by voters as more decent and less corruptible candidate.
Few hours later new projections, based on the votes cast by Croatian citizens in neighboring Bosnia and Herzegovina, brought Jadranka Kosor to the 2nd place. Mikšić was surprised as was the most of Croatian public. At first he refused to accept results and blamed the failure on alleged vote fraud, and "dead people voting".[1] He called supporters to demonstrate on streets over the alleged fraud, inspired by the, at the time current, Orange Revolution in Ukraine. The demonstrations were a complete failure, with only a small group of extremists protesting in front of the Croatian Democratic Union offices being noticed and really worth reporting. Suddenly, Mikšić started distancing himself from what he initially orchestrated and just few days later he finally conceded.
When he conceded, he nevertheless announced his candidacy in local elections, including those for Zagreb City Assembly. His announcement was quickly followed by media reporters revealing his history of alleged spousal abuse that had also been brought up previously,[2] while most mainstream commentators described him as the charlatan and dangerous populist. Campaign appeared to have effect within the 2005 local elections. His slate did enter the Zagreb City Assembly, but with only three seats, which was fewer than he expected.
Mikšić entered into the Croatian presidential election, 2009–2010, but was eliminated in the first round with 2.1% of the vote.