Ivo Josipović (pronounced [ǐːʋo josǐːpoʋitɕ] ⓘ; born 28 August 1957) is a Croatian academic,[1] jurist,[2] composer, and politician who served as the president of Croatia from 2010 to 2015.

He left politics in 1994, but returned in 2003, winning a seat in the Croatian Parliament running as an independent candidate on the SDP party list.

[7] In addition to politics, Josipović has also worked as a university professor, legal expert, musician and composer, and holds a Ph.D. in Law and advanced degrees in music composition.

In the first round he topped eleven rivals with 32.4% of the vote, and entered the run-off with independent conservative populist candidate and Mayor of Zagreb, Milan Bandić, who had secured 14.8%.

His campaign was titled "Nova pravednost" (New Justice), calling for a new legal framework to address deep social injustice, corruption and organised crime.

[11] Josipović's parents, originally from Baška Voda, a small town near Makarska in Dalmatia, had moved to capital Zagreb in 1956, about a year before he was born.

[15] After serving two consecutive five-year terms, the incumbent president Stjepan Mesić was not eligible to run in the scheduled 2009 presidential election.

He attacked the current Croatian government and the Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor for ignoring the needs of the little man and criticized her for not dealing with corruption.

[30] In April 2010, Josipović met with the Bosnian Croat Catholic archbishop cardinal Vinko Puljić and the head of the Islamic Community reis Mustafa Cerić and the three made a joint visit at the sites of Ahmići massacre and Križančevo selo killings, and paid respect to the victims.

[34] Jadranka Kosor, the current prime minister and president of the Croatian Democratic Union, criticized Josipović and accused him of breaching the constitution.

[35] The vice president of the Croatian Democratic Union, Andrija Hebrang, contested that Josipović should have visited Bleiburg before Ahmići and Grabovica.

[37] Josipović's first option as counselour for rural areas and agriculture was Mato Mlinarić, who was dismissed two hours after being appointed when the press discovered that he had some non-paid tax debts.

[38] Former journalist Drago Pilsel served as Josipović's counselor for a month, but left the position after a publishing a column in which he insulted his opponents.

[41] The site and the visit provoked some controversy in the Croatian public, with allegations of impropriety levelled against President Josipović and the authorities of Republika Srpska for misattributing some of the casualties.

During his speech, Josipović stressed that the vast majority of Croatian people fought against Ustasha policies during the Second World War by participating in an anti-fascist movement, urging everyone not to forget that "exclusivity, hatred and intolerance and the evils of fascism and other totalitarian ideologies" are still present in today's societies so that WWII crimes would never repeat, stating that "unity and determination are the only true power against the new Auschwitz, Jasenovac, Ovčara and Srebrenica".

[48] With ratings reaching as high as 84% in May, August and December[49] in 2010 and 2011, Josipović was ranked as the most popular Croatian politician in the past 20 years (with the possible exception of Franjo Tuđman), since Croatia's secession from Yugoslavia.

[52][53] President Josipović announced plans to seek re-election in the 2014 presidential election, with his electoral program focusing on amendments to the constitution and the decentralization of Croatia.

The first round of elections took place on 28 December 2014, with Josipović narrowly coming in ahead of his main challenger Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović of the conservative Croatian Democratic Union.

After having lost his bid for re-election Josipović founded a new political party called Forward Croatia-Progressive Alliance and announced that he planned to contest the upcoming parliamentary elections that were to be held in November 2015.

Josipović's Forward Croatia-Progressive Alliance signed a coalition agreement with the People's Party - Reformists, led by former economy minister Radimir Čačić.