The Ninth Government of the Republic of Croatia (Croatian: Deveta Vlada Republike Hrvatske) was the first of two Croatian Government cabinets led by Prime Minister Ivo Sanader. It was announced on 23 December 2003 and its term ended on 12 January 2008. All but two cabinet members came from the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party, following their win in the 2003 parliamentary elections (with the exception of Dragan Primorac, who was formally a non-party minister at the time of his appointment, but later joined HDZ and Vesna Škare-Ožbolt who had been a member of HDZ in the 1990s but then joined the Democratic Centre, a small centre-right party which allied with HDZ after the 2003 elections).

Quick Facts First Sanader Cabinet, Date formed ...

First Sanader Cabinet
9th Cabinet of the Republic of Croatia
Date formed	23 December 2003
Date dissolved	12 January 2008
People and organisations
Head of state	Stjepan Mesić
Head of government	Ivo Sanader
Deputy head of government	Jadranka Kosor, Andrija Hebrang (2003–05), and Damir Polančec (2005–08)
No. of ministers	14 (on 12 January 2008)
Ministers removed	5
Total no. of members	19 (including former members)
Member parties	Croatian Democratic Union Democratic Centre (with support from HSLS, HSS and SDSS)
Status in legislature	Minority coalition government
Opposition party	Social Democratic Party
Opposition leader	Ivica Račan (2003–2007) Zoran Milanović (2007)
History
Election(s)	23 November 2003 25 November 2007
Legislature term(s)	2003–2007
Predecessor	Cabinet of Ivica Račan II
Successor	Cabinet of Ivo Sanader II

Close

Party breakdown of cabinet ministers (12 January 2008):

Since Račan's centre-left coalition was replaced by the centre-right HDZ government, all the ministers were newly appointed. Furthermore, some ministries were re-organised:

• Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare was dissolved; it was then merged into Ministry of Health (which then became Ministry of Health and Social Welfare) and Ministry of Economy.
• Ministry for Crafts, Small and Medium-sized entrepreneurship was also dissolved and merged with the Ministry of Economy, which then became Ministry of Economy, Labour and Entrepreneurship
• Ministry of Agriculture and Forest Management was renamed Ministry of Agriculture, Forest and Water Management
• Ministry of Veterans' Affairs was renamed and expanded into Minister of Family, Veterans' Affairs and Intergenerational Solidarity
• Ministry of Tourism was dissolved and merged with Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Communications to form the new Ministry of the Sea, Tourism, Transport and Development
• Ministry of Justice, Public Administration and Local Self-government was renamed simply Ministry of Justice
• Minister of Public Works, Construction and Reconstruction was dissolved, and merged with the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Physical Planning to form the Ministry of Environmental Protection, Physical Planning and Construction
• Ministry of Science and Technology and Ministry of Education and Sports were merged into Ministry of Science, Education and Sports

These changes had brought down the number of ministries from 19 in Račan's cabinet to 14 under PM Sanader. Also, the ministries of European Integration (headed by Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović) and Foreign Affairs (headed by Miomir Žužul) were later merged in February 2005, which further reduced the total number of government ministries to just 13.

Some periods in the table extend after before 12 January 2008 because the minister continued to hold the post in the following Cabinet of Ivo Sanader II and Cabinet of Jadranka Kosor. The cabinet had two Deputy Prime Ministers: Jadranka Kosor and Andrija Hebrang, who both also served as ministers of their respective portfolios. When Hebrang resigned from both his posts as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Health and Social Welfare in February 2005, he was replaced by Damir Polančec (as Deputy Prime Minister) and Neven Ljubičić (who took over his portfolio).