Vesna Škare-Ožbolt

Vesna Škare-Ožbolt (born 20 June 1961 in Osijek^[1]) is a Croatian politician.

Before the first democratic elections in 1990, Škare-Ožbolt used to work in Croatian judiciary. In the 1990s she joined the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and became one of the advisors to President Franjo Tuđman.

In the late 1990s she handled the sensitive negotiations leading to a peaceful return of Serb-occupied areas of eastern Slavonia to Croatian sovereignty.

After defeat of the HDZ party in the 2000 parliamentary elections, Škare-Ožbolt, widely perceived as a moderate, left that party and followed Mate Granić to newly formed Democratic Centre (DC).^[2][3] Three years later, she won a seat in Sabor, which turned out to be the only one for DC.

After Granić resigned she took the leadership of DC and joined the government of Ivo Sanader as the minister of justice. She was the only non-HDZ minister in Sanader's cabinet.

Croatian judiciary has generally been perceived as one of the most corrupt and most inefficient branches of government. Škare-Ožbolt launched a highly publicised drive for reform, most notably by trying to digitalise the land registries, which have been notoriously inaccessible.^[4]

During the last months of her tenure, Škare-Ožbolt was involved in highly publicised extradition proceedings against former Serb warlord Dragan Vasiljković, which were ultimately unsuccessful. At the same time, the Croatian government's legal strategy the Gotovina trial was leaked to the press, allegedly by the Ministry of Justice.

On 10 February 2006, Sanader dismissed Škare-Ožbolt and replaced her with Ana Lovrin, an HDZ member.

Škare-Ožbolt's party failed to get any seats at the November 2007 parliamentary elections.

In summer of 2009 she announced her candidacy in the Croatian presidential election, 2010. She won 1.89% of the vote in the first round and was eliminated.

References