Wednesday, January 08, 2020

30 Edmontonians believed dead in Iran plane crash

Several of the victims were students or faculty at the University of Alberta

CBC News · 

A newlywed couple, a family of four and a mother with her two daughters were among more than two dozen Edmontonians killed when a Ukrainian passenger plane crashed minutes after takeoff Wednesday from Tehran's main airport.
Payman Parseyan, a member of the Iranian-Canadian community in Edmonton, said he knew many passengers who were on board Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752
All 176 people on board the Kiev-bound Boeing 737 were killed.

Reuters is reporting 30 of the dead were from Edmonton, almost half of the 63 Canadians identified by officials so far as having died in the crash. Many of the known victims from Edmonton have associations with the University of Alberta.
"We lost a significant portion of our community," Parseyan told CBC Radio's Edmonton AM. "Everybody in Edmonton that's of Iranian descent will know somebody that was on that flight."

'Shocking to the whole community'

Arash Pourzarabi and Pouneh Gorji, both in their mid-20s, were graduate students in the U of A's computer science program. They had travelled to Iran for their wedding, said Reza Akbari, president of the Iranian Heritage Society of Edmonton.
He said he heard the couple was accompanied by four friends who travelled with them to celebrate the wedding.
"It's devastating and shocking," Akbari said. "It's a tragic moment."
Akbari said a group chat on the app Telegram has become a lengthy memorial, with people from the Iranian community sharing stories about those who have been lost. 
"When you go from top to the bottom, it's hard to believe — all these wonderful people ... these people who really were actually impactful in our community, they're not among us anymore. And in one incident all of them are gone."
Akbari said he knew eight or nine of the victims, and knew two of them well. He said he expects the grief will spread well beyond the Iranian community.
"I have no doubt that there's so many people in Edmonton, regardless of their cultural background, they know them because there's doctors, university professors, among these people. It's just tragic."
U of A engineering professors Pedram Mousavi and Mojgan Daneshmand, and their daughters, Daria and Dorina, were killed, said Masoud Ardakani, associate chair of the University of Alberta's electrical and computer engineering department.
Daria, born in 2005, attended Allendale School, and her sister, Dorina, born in 2010, attended Windsor Park School.
Dr. Shekoufeh Choupannejad, an obstetrician-gynecologist at the Northgate Centre Medical Clinic in Edmonton, and her two daughters, were also killed, Parseyan said. 
Both daughters are U of A students. Saba Saadat was studying medicine; her sister, Sara, was a clinical psychology student.
Parseyan said many international students can't travel to the United States, so they travel through European connections.

University professors Pedram Mousavi and Mojgan Daneshmand, along with their daughters, from left, Daria and Dorina, are among the dead, a University of Alberta spokesperson confirmed Wednesday. (zaghtweet1/Twitter) (zaghtweet1/Twitter)
Information was shared among Iranians in Edmonton through a chat group, and once manifests were released, names were cross-referenced and confirmed, he said.
A community group of about 100 people has formed to make arrangements for families of the victims, Parseyan said.
"Edmonton's Iranian community isn't Canada's largest Iranian community, but we are working together to ensure all members of the community are supported during this difficult time."
According to 2016 census statistics, the Edmonton area had 4,630 people who identified as being of Iranian origin.
Canada as a whole had 210,405 people who listed Iran as their country of ethnic origin — or one of multiple countries of ethnic origin — in that census.
The largest Iranian populations are in southern Ontario, B.C. and Quebec, with the biggest communities in:

Families search for more info

Parseyan said members of the community learned about the crash while watching the news of Iran's missile attacks against two airbases in Iraq housing U.S. and coalition forces that took place a few hours before the crash.
"Many were expecting their friends and [family] members to come back ... [and] were well aware what flight they were on," said Parseyan, a former president of the Iranian Heritage Society of Edmonton.
He said one person who knew a passenger on the plane had called him and asked him for more information.
"He called and said, 'Hey, is there any chance there's a second flight to Kyiv, this is a mistake? This can't be real.' He's devastated."
Parseyan said the news is difficult for an Iranian community already concerned about ongoing aggression between Iran and the United States

'This is a terrible day'

In a statement issued Wednesday, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said he is "deeply saddened" by the news of the plane crash and extended sympathies on behalf of the provincial government.
"Alberta has been enriched by a small but dynamic and highly educated Iranian community," Kenney said. "This is a terrible day for them, and I am sure that all Albertans join me in expressing our condolences to the entire community, which is affected by this disaster."
Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson issued a statement Wednesday.
"I was heartbroken to hear this morning of the devastating news," Iveson said. "While no words can erase the pain this crash has caused, I, on behalf of Edmontonians and your city council, would like to offer the families and friends who have lost a loved one in this tragedy our deepest condolences.
"Edmonton is in mourning today — our community has suffered a terrible loss."
David Turpin, president and vice-chancellor of the University of Alberta, also expressed his sorrow in a statement
"Words simply cannot express the loss I know we all are feeling," Turpin said. "On behalf of the University of Alberta, I wish to extend our deepest condolences to the families, friends, colleagues and loved ones of the victims of this tragedy. 
"This is a devastating loss for the University of Alberta. Ours is a closely interconnected community, and we grieve with everyone touched by this terrible loss— friends, classmates, roommates, professors, students, mentors, and colleagues. The University of Alberta's flags will be lowered to half-mast in recognition of this tragedy."
Turpin said counselling and other services are available to students, staff, faculty, and others in the community.
The disaster was the largest recent loss of life among Canadians since an Air India flight blew up in 1985 over the Atlantic Ocean, killing 268 Canadians.
The plane crash marks the single largest loss of life of Edmontonians. A tornado that tore through parts of the city in 1987 killed 27 people.
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A New, Unidentified Virus Is Causing Pneumonia Outbreak in China, Officials Say

By  
So, what is it?

(Image: © Shutterstock)
The unidentified viral illness that has sickened dozens in the Chinese city of Wuhan is not severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), according to local health officials.    
In the early 2000s, an outbreak of SARS swept the globe, infecting more than 8,000 people and killing more than 750, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The epidemic began in China and hit the country harder than any other, so when an unknown form of pneumonia recently emerged in Wuhan, it stirred rumors of a second SARS outbreak. Now, local health officials have officially crossed SARS off the list of potential culprits, according to The New York Times. 
Officials also confirmed that the mystery illness is not Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), bird flu or an adenovirus. 
As of Sunday (Jan. 5), 59 people in Wuhan have been diagnosed with the unidentified disease, presenting with symptoms of fever, body aches, breathing difficulties and lung injury. The total number of infected people is up from the 44 cases reported last week. 
In addition, 21 people who recently visited the city were hospitalized in Hong Kong between Dec. 31 and Jan. 6, according to a report from the Hong Kong health department. The city will also ramp up efforts to spot feverish passengers traveling through its international airport and on its high-speed rail system, according to the report. Health authorities in Singapore are also on the alert for infected travelers and recently quarantined a young girl after her trip to Wuhan. She was later diagnosed with a common viral illness, according to the Singapore Ministry of Health.  
Rumors of a potential SARS outbreak gained traction online earlier this month, but Chinese authorities have since censored the hashtag #WuhanSARS and are now investigating eight people in Wuhan who allegedly spread misleading information about the outbreak on social media, The New York Times reported. The government failed to adequately inform the public and international health agencies during the historic SARS epidemic, which may explain the reaction of Chinese citizens to this new illness.  
"I have to emphasize this is a new disease, and no one on earth has gone through this before," Leo Poon, a public health expert at the University of Hong Kong, told The New York Times. "I hope this pathogen is a less harmful one so it would not cause a major epidemic similar to SARS. It would be a nightmare for all of us."
As of yet, no health workers have contracted the mystery illness, which may indicate that the virus has not begun to spread between people, Wang Linfa, an expert on emerging infectious diseases at the Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore, told the Times. "We should not go into panic mode," he said.  
Originally published on Live Science. 

Hong Kong to add mystery respiratory illness to reportable diseases

Disease has sent 59 people to the hospital in the mainland Chinese city of Wuhan

The Associated Press · 

Secretary for Food and Health, Prof. Sophia Chan, speaks about response measures to prevent and control a mysterious infectious disease. (Andy Wong/Associated Press
Hong Kong's health chief said Tuesday that a respiratory illness whose cause remains unknown will be added to an official list of diseases that medical practitioners are required to report to the government.
The disease — an unidentified form of viral pneumonia — has sent 59 people to the hospital in the mainland Chinese city of Wuhan, in central Hubei province. As of Sunday, seven were in critical condition, while the rest were stable. Municipal authorities have ruled out SARS, the severe acute respiratory syndrome that killed 700 people in 2002 and 2003.
In Hong Kong, a total of 15 patients were being treated Sunday for symptoms including fever and respiratory infection after recent visits to Wuhan. It is not clear whether they have the same illness as the Wuhan patients
Speaking at a news conference, the health chief, Sophia Chan, said the "severe respiratory disease associated with a novel infectious agent" will be added to a list of reportable infectious diseases in Hong Kong's Prevention and Control of Disease Ordinance.
The regulation enables the government to take stronger measures against the spread of certain diseases, such as tuberculosis and chicken pox. Actions under the ordinance could include enforcing quarantines or limiting the movement of people who are suspected to have infections.
"Under the amendment, medical practitioners will have to report suspected cases as well as carry out appropriate investigations and follow-ups to the Center for Health Protection under the Department of Health," Chan said.
The U.S. Consulate General in Wuhan issued a health alert Tuesday for the pneumonia outbreak, warning travellers to Wuhan to avoid animals, as well as animal markets and products.
Dr. Gauden Galea, WHO Representative to China, said public health officials in China "remain focused on continued contact tracing, conducting environmental assessments at the wholesale market, and investigations to identify the pathogen causing the outbreak."
WHO is closely monitoring the event and communicating with counterparts in China, Galea added in a emailed statement

Precautions for travellers

Currently, there are no suspected cases in Canada or involving Canadians overseas, Anna Maddison, a spokesperson for the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) said.
Canada's Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, is keeping in close contact with her provincial and territorial colleagues, the agency said. PHAC officials are also in close contact with federal partners, the World Health Organization and other international partners.
Maddison pointed to systems to identify, prevent and control the spread of infectious diseases including a global public health intelligence monitoring system that scans the world's open source media
"No matter the destination, travellers should always take precautions against respiratory and other illnesses while travelling, and seek medical attention if they become ill."
During their trip, Canadian travellers to Wuhan city are encouraged to:
  • Avoid high-risk areas such as farms, live animal markets, and areas where animals may be slaughtered.
  • Avoid contact with animals (alive or dead), including pigs, chickens, ducks and wild birds.
  • Avoid surfaces with animal droppings or secretions on them.
Travellers should also wash their hands often, and practise proper cough and sneeze etiquette.
People are encouraged to tell their health-care providers about their travel if they become ill after returning to Canada. 
Toronto Pubic Health said the overall risk to residents is considered very low.
"Given that Toronto Pearson International Airport is an international travel hub, Toronto Public Health is actively monitoring this situation, along with provincial and national health agencies," the department added in a release.
With files from CBC News

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EXTERNAL LINKS


  • Pneumonia of unknown cause – China, World Health Organization
  • Wuhan Health Commission updates
  • Wuhan ‘pneumonia’: Hong Kong health chief under pressure to seek more information from mainland authorities amid silence on latest patient numbers
  • Lawmakers grill health secretary Sophia Chan for 2½ hours on the government’s response to the pneumonia situation in Wuhan
    Hong Kong’s public hospitals admitted eight more people who had been to Wuhan in the past two weeks and presented with symptoms of either fever and respiratory infection or pneumonia
    Phila Siu,Elizabeth Cheung,Lilian Cheng
    Published: 12:17pm, 8 Jan, 2020

    Lawmakers had questioned whether Hong Kong had enough stocks of masks in the event of an outbreak. Photo: Winson Wong

    Hong Kong’s health minister on Wednesday came under pressure to seek more details on the mystery Wuhan pneumonia outbreak from the mainland Chinese government, as lawmakers expressed concerns that authorities there had not released updates on patient numbers since Sunday.

    The lawmakers tabled urgent questions on the outbreak as in the 24 hours to noon on Wednesday, Hong Kong’s public hospitals admitted eight more people who had been to Wuhan in central China in the past two weeks and presented with symptoms of either fever and respiratory infection or pneumonia.
  • This brings the total number of suspected cases in Hong Kong to 38, though 21 patients have been discharged.
  • Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee was grilled for 2½ hours in the Legislative Council on the government’s response to the pneumonia situation in Wuhan.
    Hong Kong officials increase powers in fight against Chinese ‘pneumonia’
    8 Jan 2020

    Some lawmakers said Chan must press the mainland authorities for the genetic map of the Wuhan virus so Hong Kong experts could help look into the disease in case of an outbreak locally. The Hong Kong government also needed to ask the mainland side whether other cities or provinces had also been infected, they said.
    The Wuhan Municipal Health Commission said on Sunday that 59 people had been infected with the unidentified strain, seven of whom were in a critical condition.
  • “That was from its last update on January 5. Today is already January 8,” Civic Party lawmaker Tanya Chan said. “Do you have ways to really find out how many cases there are on the mainland at present, in particular in Wuhan? Can you obtain the genetic map?”

    The commission said on Wednesday night that eight people with the virus had been discharged from hospital.
  • No other mainland government agencies had offered any updates.
    A source said the mainland health authorities were likely to announce results of the investigation on the virus in around a week.

    Some of the patients infected with the unknown pneumonia have been treated in Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan. Photo: Jun Mai
  • The World Health Organisation’s office in China, which said on Sunday it was closely monitoring the disease in Wuhan, offered no updates when asked on Wednesday.

    The Hong Kong government on Wednesday made it mandatory for all medical practitioners to notify the authorities of anyone suspected to have contracted the unidentified strain.
  • This was done by gazetting a bill to amend the Prevention and Control of Disease Ordinance, to include with immediate effect “severe respiratory disease associated with a novel infectious agent” as a statutory notifiable infectious disease. The law empowers officials to put patients in mandatory quarantine
  • The government has also stepped up checks on visitors coming from Wuhan by train or plane.
  • Other lawmakers, including the Democratic Party’s Helena Wong Pik-wan, were concerned whether there were also cases in other Chinese cities. They urged the minister to find out as there was no such information.
    Wuhan pneumonia not Sars, but virus unidentified as more hospitalised
    7 Jan 2020

    Civic Party lawmaker Kwok Ka-ki, a urologist, said he had talked to public hospital doctors who told him the government knew hardly anything about the Wuhan pneumonia. That made it difficult for doctors to provide the best treatment to those who developed symptoms after returning from Wuhan recently, Kwok added.
    The health secretary replied that the governments of Hong Kong, Macau and the mainland had in 2005 signed an agreement to notify each other if any major public health incidents were discovered. The government had been in close contact with the mainland authorities and the mechanism had been working well, she stressed.
    She believed the mainland would tell the Hong Kong government if such pneumonia cases were found outside Wuhan, adding she would continue to ask the authorities for more information about the disease.
    Mystery pneumonia infects at least 59 people in Wuhan, China
    Health services sector lawmaker Joseph Lee Kok-long challenged the government’s earlier announcement that the number of isolation beds in public hospitals could be raised from the current 480 to 1,400 in 72 hours.
    According to the latest figures, 15 out of 17 public hospitals had over-occupancy rates in medical wards as of midnight on Tuesday, ranging from 103 to 131 per cent, because of the higher number of diseases triggered by winter weather.
    On this, Chan insisted the increase could be done in 72 hours. But she admitted there was “significant room for improvement” regarding the overcrowding in hospitals.
    Hong Kong set to add mystery pneumonia to list of notifiable diseases
    7 Jan 2020

    Pro-government lawmakers, including Wilson Or Chong-shing, had concerns as to whether there were enough stocks of masks in the event of a local outbreak. Chan said public hospitals had enough masks to last three months. The government had talked to pharmacies, which said more stocks would arrive in the city in one to two weeks.
    The Hospital Authority said on Wednesday it was exploring the feasibility of deferring non-emergency surgeries and services among the measures at public hospitals to centralise resources and manpower to cope with suspected cases related to the Wuhan pneumonia.
    Meanwhile, infectious diseases expert Professor Yuen Kwok-yung from the University of Hong Kong suspected the unidentified virus that led to the Wuhan outbreak was a coronavirus strain from bats.
    That was because the Wuhan cases were not found with bird flu, flu or other known viruses, but the infections were suspected to be linked to game meat.
    “Bats still carry around a dozen coronavirus strains,” Yuen said. “There is a reason for us to speculate that the virus spread from bats to some wild animals, and then jumped to humans.”

    A student at PolyU developed a fever and persistent cough after returning from Wuhan and was taken to hospital. Photo: Handout
    He said viruses of a few major infectious diseases in the past, including severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) in 2003 and Middle East respiratory syndrome, which started in 2012, were also traced back to bats.
    “Theoretically, it is also possible for bats to spread the virus to humans directly. But very few people eat bats. However, many people eat masked palm civet and other wild animals,” Yuen said.
    Separately, a third Hong Kong education institution, Polytechnic University, has reported that a student developed a fever and persistent cough after returning from Wuhan recently.
    The case was reported to the government on Tuesday night and she was in a stable condition on Wednesday. The dormitory where she lived had been sterilised, PolyU said.
    Additional reporting by Linda Lew
  • SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=WUTAN
    SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=CHINA 
    SEE  https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=SARS 
    SEE  https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=PANDEMIC

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The emptying of Spain's interior

Spain's rural regions have lost 28 percent of their populations in the past 50 years.
by Alasdair Fotheringham
6 Jan 2020
The depopulation of Spain's interior has become a focus 
of attention, with under-investment in small communities
 a driving force of emigration [Pierre-Philippe Marcou/AFP]
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Madrid, Spain - Sitting 2,000 metres above sea level on the southern edge of the province of Teruel, the Javalambre astrological observation station is said to offer one of the clearest night skies in Europe for stargazers.

But cast your eyes back down to earth, and there is a grim reason for Javalambre's much-appreciated dearth of light pollution.

For decades now, Teruel's population has been draining away, and in 2017 some parts had sunk to an average of 1.63 inhabitants per square kilometre - lower than that of Lapland in Sweden, internationally famous for being one of Europe's most remote regions.

And it is not just Teruel. Spain's rural depopulation crisis has reached a point where five of its regions - Aragon, Castilla y Leon, Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura and La Rioja make up 53 percent of its territory, but now have only 15 percent of its residents.
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In the past 50 years, Spain's rural regions have lost 28 percent of their population, and are now popularly known as la Espana vacia - empty Spain. In Teruel, part of Aragon, with a drop in population of nine percent in the past decade alone, the loss has been particularly noticeable.

"It's a real environmental, human and historic problem - a disaster for the whole country," Tomas Guitarte tells Al Jazeera.

In November's elections, Guitarte became the first MP to represent a Spanish political association specifically created to fight rural depopulation. It is named Teruel Existe ["Teruel Exists"].

Although the industrial development plans forged by Spain's former dictator, General Francisco Franco, kickstarted the rural depopulation process in the 1960s, Guitarte believes 40 years of state inaction in the democracy following Franco has meant it has not been reversed.

"Recently when I met the king, I reminded him how back when, as crown prince, he'd come to Teruel in 2000," he said. "We'd told him the region's biggest problems were depopulation and the lack of infrastructure.

"Nineteen years have passed and those problems become even more serious - and places like Teruel risk ending up completely empty."

Guitarte, whose own family left the region when he was aged 10 - "basically because they wanted us to live somewhere I could get some worthwhile academic qualifications, which was nearly impossible at the time in Teruel" - says one of Franco's ministers, Cruz Martinez Esteruelas, indicated the state's underlying intentions towards his region back in 1974 when opening an education centre.

"He more or less said that if it was the destiny of the people of Teruel to emigrate to benefit other regions, we should at least get some schooling before we left.
The emigration hasn't been natural, it was programmed, thanks to the state's lack of action, and despite Teruel's well-placed geographical location in the middle of Spain

TOMAS GUITARTE

"That's what's most scandalous - the emigration hasn't been natural, it was programmed, thanks to the state's lack of action, and despite Teruel's well-placed geographical location in the middle of Spain.

"That explains, too, why industrialisation back then took place on the Spanish coast, not inland in Teruel. After mining our natural resources, they shipped them away, in what was a form of colonialism," he said.

More than four decades later, the absence of state investment, transport infrastructure and employment opportunities has done nothing to slow down the depopulation process, with Guitarte pointing to the vast areas of Teruel - "around 40 percent still lacking any kind of internet broadband coverage" - as one example of ongoing institutional neglect.
READ MORE
Are Global South experts sidelined in climate conversations?

Should Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez finally succeed in forming a government this week, he has promised universal broadband across Spain, as well as stepping up rural health care.

But the most striking example of Teruel's abandonment is surely the transport sector. Spain is famous for having the greatest length of high-speed railways per inhabitant in the world, but when Madrid's high-speed train connection to Valencia was constructed in the early 2000s, pleas for it to go through Teruel fell on deaf ears.

As for the double-track railway offered in compensation, it has never been built, while a video published by Teruel Existe in 2018 of a tractor overtaking the province's one ultra-slow train, travelling at around 30km/h, remains a Spanish social media hit.

Repeated requests for comment made to Spain's Ministry of Transport and Development for this report were unsuccessful.

Sick of empty promises, Guitarte's decision to head for Madrid as an MP followed an epiphany of sorts.

"We realised we need to be in the seat of power to get anything done," he said. "We've had demonstrations, we've signed petitions. They haven't worked. Getting into Parliament, with the backing of the people, feels like Teruel's last throw of the dice."

Nearly 600 kilometres (370 miles) further south, in the tiny village of Torvizcon in Andalucia, 31-year-old physiotherapist Adrian Moron Sanchez tells Al Jazeera how the population here has plummeted since he was growing up.

"When I was a kid there were 1,200 people in the village," Moron Sánchez says. "Now that has halved to 673, and lots of people from the other villages round here tell me the same kind of drop in population has happened in their towns too."

Climate change, he says, accompanied by increasingly inclement weather and heavy frosts has played a part in the mass emigration "because the almond and olive harvests have been bad, and a construction company went bust in 2012".

"It's really sad, when I go back, I walk through streets which were once full of life, but now they are dying on their feet."
People want to stay in the villages; it's a question of how and what they get in return

MARIA ANDRES

Any plan to slow depopulation requires spending in isolated areas to help retain people in these small communities.

"There needs to be far more investment and subsidies on offer from the regional government for small-scale, agroecological local businesses or crafts as a way of ensuring the benefits, financial or otherwise, remain in the villages," says Maria Andres, an activist with the Ecologistas en Accion pro-environmental movement.

She worked for 15 years on an extensive livestock project in Cuenca in central Spain, and says "people want to stay in the villages; it's a question of how and what they get in return".

In the battle against depopulation, some places like Pescueza, a tiny village of just 172 people in the western region of Extremadura, have developed a strategy called Quedate con nosotros ("Stay with us") making it as attractive as possible to its senior citizens, who make up 65 percent of inhabitants.

READ MORESpanish politics undermining climate change fight

With a new day centre, special free vehicles for pensioners, railings on the slightest slope, even anti-slip paint, the village has seen an upturn not just in its senior citizens but across the generations.

No fewer than 14 children have been born in the village in the past seven years since the day centre opened - after 17 years without any births at all.

"Our project would work well for smaller towns with populations of under 1,000," Andres Rodriguez, mayor of Pescueza, told Al Jazeera. With just 1.3 percent of Spain's population living in villages of fewer than 500 people, "[this] is where the biggest problem in Espana vacia is right now", he said. "It would help them flourish again."

But central government policies attempting to halt the growth of Spain's disappearing regions still appear sorely lacking, say activists.

"Depopulation is a very serious problem for Spain; more important than the questions of Catalonia or the Basque Country - the areas involved [in the depopulation crisis] are more than half the country's territory," concluded Guitarte.

"The state itself has generated this problem of two Spains, the 'developed Spain' and the 'empty Spain'. Now we need some kind of political action by the state to redress the balance."


SOURCE: AL JAZEERA NEWS
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Who is Zoran Milanovic, Croatia's new president?

Milanovic pledged to make Croatia a 'normal, decent' liberal democracy, with an equal society and independent judiciary.
6 Jan 2020

Zoran Milanovic is a former prime minister of Croatia
 [Marko Djurica/Reuters]
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Zoran Milanovic, Croatia's former leftist prime minister who was elected the country's new president on Sunday, is an experienced politician who made a comeback after being absent from politics for three years.

While intelligent and articulate, the 53-year-old is seen by critics as arrogant and a loner focused on his own ambitions, and lacking the common touch.
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With a serious manner and a stern gaze Milanovic has struggled in the past to woo ordinary voters.

When he was named prime minister in 2011, then aged 45, the leader of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) was perceived by many as a promising young politician, free of the corruption plaguing the rival conservative HDZ party.

But his government failed to live up to expectations and implement much-needed reforms, perpetuating widespread patronage and poor economic trends.
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His SDP lost power following 2015 elections and Milanovic stepped down as party chief after he failed again in the following year's snap vote.

He has since been running a management consultant company whose clients have included Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, according to media reports.

Milanovic threw his hat in the presidential race last June, running as a "President with Character" in a cheeky allusion to his reputation for being stubborn.

He has previously described himself as having a "leftist heart and conservative head", but has been criticised for a standoffish approach towards rivals and the media.

In the campaign, he promised to make Croatia a "normal, decent" liberal democracy, with an equal society and independent judiciary.

Milanovic took 52.7 percent of the vote, while incumbent President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, who had tried to unite a fractured right wing, garnered 47.3 percent, according to results based on a vote count at nearly all polling stations released by the electoral commission. The turnout was about 55 percent.

Born in Zagreb in 1966, Milanovic was a top law student.
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An avid amateur boxer in his twenties he never took part in matches, preferring to remain a sparring partner. He joined the foreign ministry during the former Yugoslav republic's 1990s independence war.

After the war, Milanovic served for three years with Croatia's European Union and NATO mission in Brussels and eventually joined the SDP in 1999.

He saw the party as the perfect counterweight to the "rural" values promoted by the then ruling HDZ, whose nationalist leader Franjo Tudjman died in December 1999.

Milanovic was elected head of the SDP in mid-2007 as successor to his mentor, Ivica Racan, a former prime minister who died of cancer.

Milanovic is married to a doctor and has two sons.

SOURCE: AFP NEWS AGENCY
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