Ruža Tomašić

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Ruža Tomašić
File:Croatian part- Citizens’ Corner debate on EU policies for asylum seekers and immigrants (18432278524) (cropped).jpg
Croatian member of the European Parliament
Assumed office
1 July 2013
Member of Parliament
In office
22 December 2011 – 1 July 2013
Constituency X electoral district
Member of Parliament
In office
22 December 2003 – 12 October 2007
Constituency X electoral district
President of the
Croatian Party of Rights dr. Ante Starčević
In office
12 September 2009 – 3 November 2014
Deputy Pero Ćorić
Personal details
Born (1958-05-10) 10 May 1958 (age 66)[1]
Mladoševica, SFR Yugoslavia (now Bosnia and Herzegovina)[1]
Political party Croatian Party of Rights (1990-2009)
Croatian Party of Rights dr. Ante Starčević (2009-2014)
Croatian Conservative Party (2015-)
Alma mater Ontario Police College
Religion Roman Catholic

Ruža Tomašić (Croatian pronunciation: [rǔːʒa tɔ̌maʃitɕ]) (born 10 May 1958) is a Croatian police officer and politician. She is a Member of the European Parliament since July 2013. From 2003 to 2008 she was MP elected from the list of the Croatian Party of Rights and from December 2011 to July 2013 only MP of the right-wing Croatian Party of Rights dr. Ante Starčević.

She is a founder and a former member of the right-wing Croatian Party of Rights dr. Ante Starčević. In the European parliament she is a member of the European Conservatives and Reformists group.

On 17 January 2015 she joined the newly founded Croatian Conservative Party.[2][3]

Early life

Ruža Tomašić was born in the village of Mladoševica,[1] SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, FPR Yugoslavia and grew up with her parents, six sisters and a brother in the Slavonian village of Velika Kopanica.[4] At age 15, she left Yugoslavia and joined her older sister, who was married and lived in Toronto, Canada.[4] Tomašić worked on a variety of jobs to support herself before enrolling at the Ontario Police College, from which she graduated near the top of her class in 1981.[1][4] In her career as a police officer in Toronto and Vancouver, she primarily dealt with juvenile delinquency and illegal drug trade, which included undercover work.[4][5]

Return to Croatia

In September 1990 Tomašić moved to Croatia, by invitation from then-President Franjo Tuđman,[why?][citation needed] and served as a bodyguard for top Croatian government officials. In 1992, she was diagnosed with uterine cancer, and chose to go back to Canada for medical treatment. After recovering completely from her illness in 1998 she decided to move to Croatia again. In the meantime, Tomašić appeared in approximately 20 episodes of The X-Files and Millennium as a stuntwoman, drawing on her experience of riding a police motorcycle in the mid-1980s.[4][6]

Politics and activism

Tomašić was politically active in the Croatian Canadian community, and became a member of the Croatian Party of Rights in 1990. After settling in Croatia with her family in 1998, she began a more earnest involvement in politics, became a vice-president of the Croatian Party of Rights, and entered the 2003 election in the top spot on her party's list in the 10th electoral unit, which brought her a seat in Sabor.[1][4] Her term ended in January 2008.[1]

In 2009 Tomašić left the Croatian Party of Rights over disagreements with its president Anto Đapić. She accused Đapić of "betraying the party" and of using his position for personal gain.[7] In September 2009 she was elected president of a new party, Croatian Party of Rights dr. Ante Starčević.[8][9]

To the general public in Croatia, Tomašić is also known as an anti-drug activist. She received a number of death threats in 2006. In 2007 it was reported that organized crime groups had been planning her assassination.[10][11] By that time, she had started carrying a pistol for self-defense, and her family received police protection.[12] In December 2010 Tomašić received the Order of Stjepan Radić in recognition of her efforts fighting organized crime.[13]

In March 2013, she made headlines after she was quoted saying "Croatia is for Croats while everyone else is a guest",[14] a claim she disputed.[15] On 3 November 2014 Tomašić left the Croatian Party of Rights dr. Ante Starčević.[16]

Member of European Parliament

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. In the European election of 14 April 2013, Tomašić was elected in the European Parliament, placing 6th in the candidates list of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ). On 1 July 2013, after Croatia joined the European Union, she took office as Member of the European Parliament (MEP).

Tomašić joined European Conservatives and Reformists Group and became member of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs and Special Committee on Organised Crime, Corruption and Money Laundering. She was re-elected MEP following European election of 25 May 2014, serving her second term in office, placing 5th in the candidates list of HDZ.

Controversies

Commenting on the statement by Serbian Labour Minister Aleksandar Vulin, who said Croatia cannot give lessons to Serbia about war crimes after Croatia's Interior Minister Ranko Ostojić said that Serbia could improve its path to join the European Union by holding a trial for the murder of twelve Croatian police officers in Borovo Selo during the Croatian War of Independence. She told Croatian Serbs in Vukovar that they could be "cleansed". "Let them pray to God that we do not clean up our yard because if we start to clean our yard you will have a lot more Croatian Serbs who will have to go to Serbia. They hold this state for their treasury and supermarket and give nothing to the state", she added. This statement was criticised, including by the Committee on Human Rights and National Minorities of the Croatian Parliament.[17][18][19][20]

Personal life

Tomašić lives in Brna, on the island of Korčula, which is the birthplace of her husband Vlado, whom she married in 1987. They have two children, Tomislav (born c. 1988) and Zrinka (born c. 1989).[4][6]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name "Sabor" defined multiple times with different content Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name "Sabor" defined multiple times with different content
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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