Background
Antunović was born in Virovitica, Croatia, then SFR Yugoslavia.
Antunović was born in Virovitica, Croatia, then SFR Yugoslavia.
University of Zagreb. Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb.
She also served as Minister of Defence from 2002 until 2003. She was the first and so far only female holder of the office. However, following disastrous results of the SDH in parliamentary elections, the party accepted the Social Democratic Party"s offer of unification, which occurred in 1994.
Antunović, together with Antun Vujić, gradually rose through the ranks of Social Democratic Party. At the party conference in 2000, she was elected as a deputy president of Social Democratic Party. Between 2000 and 2003, she served as a deputy Prime Minister and was named the first woman to hold the portfolio of Defence in the second cabinet of Ivica Račan, serving from 2002 until the end of the cabinet"s term in 2003.
Antunović ran for president at the party convention on June 2, 2007, together with Milan Bandić, Zoran Milanović and Tonino Picula. She was defeated by Milanović in the second round of voting.
After her retirement from politics, she started a consulting company. She took part in the Ivo Josipović"s campaign for the Croatian presidential election, 2014-2015.
She entered the political scene in 1990 when she joined the Social Democrats of Croatia (SDH), a centre-left party - formed after establishment of democracy across Yugoslavia - and originally a major rival of the Social Democratic Party, who had in turn recently succeeded the League of Communists of Croatia. On January 31, 2007, Ivica Račan announced that he was temporarily leaving politics due to health reasons. Antunović then took over the chairmanship of the Party.
And on April 11, following further deterioration in Račan"s health, he resigned as leader of the party, leaving Antunović as head of the Social Democratic Party until the next party convention.
Antunović has served as a member of Croatian Parliament from 1995 to 1999, and from 2003 onwards.