Andrej Plenković

Andrej Plenković (pronounced [ǎndrej plěːŋkoʋit͡ɕ]; born 8 April 1970) is a Croatian politician serving as the prime minister of Croatia since October 2016. He was previously one of eleven Croatian members of the European Parliament, serving from Croatia's accession to the European Union in 2013 until his resignation as MEP when he took office as prime minister. Plenković has also been serving as the president of the Croatian Democratic Union since 2016.

Following his graduation from the Faculty of Law at the University of Zagreb in 1993, Plenković held various bureaucratic positions in the Croatian Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs. After completing a postgraduate degree in 2002, he served as deputy chief of Croatia's mission to the European Union. Between 2005 and 2010, he was Croatia's deputy ambassador to France, before leaving the post to become State Secretary for European Integration. He was elected to the Croatian Parliament in 2011.

He was elected president of the HDZ in 2016, following Tomislav Karamarko's resignation. Plenković campaigned on a pro-European and moderate agenda and led his party to a plurality of seats in the 2016 parliamentary election. He was designated as prime minister of Croatia by President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović on 10 October 2016 after presenting 91 signatures of support by members of Parliament to her. His cabinet was confirmed by a vote of Parliament on 19 October with a majority of 91 out of 151 MPs. His first cabinet had 20 ministers, second cabinet had 17 ministers, while the third cabinet has 18 ministers.

He is one of only two Croatian prime ministers (along with Ivo Sanader) who have served more than one term, winning general elections in 2016, 2020 and 2024. He is also, along with Ivica Račan and Sanader, one of the three prime ministers who have been at the head of more than one government cabinet. On 4 May 2022 Plenković surpassed Sanader's tenure, becoming the longest-serving prime minister in Croatia's post-independence history.