Former Yugoslav PM Milka Planinc Dies

Planinc served as the prime minister of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1982 to 1986 and was considered one of the most powerful women in Yugoslavia at that time.

Her mandate as prime minister was remembered as a period when the government implemented restrictive economic measures in order to regulate its external debt and begin paying back its creditors.

Planinc was born in 1924 in the village of Drnis in Croatia. After her schooling was interrupted by World War II, she joined the Communist Youth League at as a teenager.

She later joined the partisan movement and at the end of the war held the rank of lieutenant.

Planinc became the leader of the Communist Party in Croatia in 1971, where she stayed until she became head of the Yugoslav government.