Ruža Tomašić

Ruža Tomašić (Croatian pronunciation: [rǔːʒa tɔ̌maʃitɕ]; born 10 May 1958) is a Croatian politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament from July 2013 to June 2021, having been elected to the position three times. Upon her withdrawal from the Parliament, she retired from politics altogether.

After finishing elementary school at the age of 10, Tomašić moved to Canada where she finished high school and a police college. As a police officer, she worked on the prevention of juvenile delinquency and combatting drug trafficking. After Croatian president Franjo Tuđman invited her to return to Croatia in 1990, Tomašić accepted and started working as a member of Tuđman's personal security. After beating ovarian cancer, she decided to leave police work and engage in politics. From 2003 to 2008 she was a member of the Croatian Parliament elected from the list of the Croatian Party of Rights and from December 2011 to July 2013 as an MP for the Croatian Party of Rights Dr. Ante Starčević. At the 2013 and 2014 EP elections, Tomašić won second most preference votes of all the candidates, and at the 2019 EP elections, most preference votes.

On 17 January 2015 she joined the newly founded Croatian Conservative Party. In the European Parliament, Tomašić sits in the European Conservatives and Reformists group.

As of 2019, the European Parliament adopted 5 of her reports, 28 reports on which she worked as a shadow rapporteur, 573 of her amendments and 293 resolutions which, in addition to delivering more than 1000 speeches and sending 146 parliamentary questions to the EU Commission and the Council, made her the most active Croatian MEP.