Dr. Franjo Tudman (sometimes there's an extra J in the middle of the last name) was the first President of Croatia. He served in the office from 1990, when the country was formed after Yugoslavia started to fall apart, to 1999, when he died at the age of 77.
Tudman was a professor in Zagreb in the 1960s. Then some of his views became, shall we say, unpopular with the ruling government. It was off to prison for a while, followed by a life in obscurity. But then communism started to crumble in 1989, and Tudman formed the Croatian Democratic Union. That went on to win control of Parliament, and soon he wrote a new constitution and led the fight for an independent Croatia. That idea went to a referendum, and it was overwhelmingly approved. However, the move unleashed some hard feelings, and a war broke out in the region with a variety of twists and alliances. It took several years for everything to settle down.
The debate continues about Tudman in Croatia, but there can be little doubt that he was an important transformational figure in the country's history. That earned him the statue.
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