Herman Vukušić (born 9 May 1966) was a Croatian psychiatrist, activist, assistant to Minister of Family, Veterans' Affairs and Intergenerational Solidarity Jadranka Kosor from 15 January 2004 to 22 July 2005 and representative of the government at Commission of the Economic-Social Council from 17 March 2004 to 28 April 2006.
Vukušić served in the Main Medical Staff of the Croatian Army during Croatian War of Independence after which he became a psychiatrist and a veterans’ rights activist, co-founding Association of Croatian Veterans of Croatian War of Independence. His medical career primarily revolved around treatment of patients with post-traumatic stress disorder, many of which were also veterans and he became an internationally recognized expert on PTSD. While Vukušić was a long-time liberal, since 2020 he’d been publicly criticizing LGBT rights movement and he gradually became a conservative and he would side with right-wing Miroslav Škoro Homeland Movement, Croatian Pulse, Home and National Rally and a big tent Party of Ivan Pernar party, and he ran as a candidate on Homeland Movement and Party of Ivan Pernar’s lists in 2020 and 2024 parliamentary elections respectively.
Biography[]
Herman Vukušić was born on 9 May 1966 to a table tennis trainer and director Herman Vukušić and physician Vesna Vukušić. In 1991, he earned master’s degree in medicine at University of Zagreb School of Medicine. During Croatian War of Independence, he became a member of the Main Medical Staff of the Croatian Army where, in 1992, he witnessed Marie Antoinette syndrome from traumatic stress which inspired him to become a psychiatrist. He became a veterans' rights activist, co-founding Association of Croatian Veterans of Croatian War of Independence on 14 February 1992 and serving as its vice-president from 1995 to 1999. He specialized in psychiatry in 1998 and would become employed at Clinical Medical Center Rib. From 15 January 2004 to 22 July 2005, he served as an assistant to Minister of Family, Veterans' Affairs and Intergenerational Solidarity Jadranka Kosor and from 17 March 2004 to 28 April 2006, as a representative of the government at Commission of the Economic-Social Council. During the time he was the assistant to Kosor, a new law was passed which included removal of distinction between "diseased" and "wounded" military invalids and changed deadline for veterans with PTSD to register their diagnosis from 30 days to 10 years. In January 2016, he was an unofficial advisor to Minister of Defenders Mijo Crnoja, who was dismissed after only six days of service after it was discovered that he falsely registered his residence. In 2017, he signed Vigilare’s petition calling for ban on abortion and introduction of programs supporting pregnant women. He ran as a candidate for vice-president of Hrvoje Tomasović during 2019 elections for president of Croatian Medical Chamber. That same year, Organization for European Safety and Cooperation assigned him to treat former Islamic State soldiers and in an interview with Večernji List he stated that many of the former members experience secondary victimization from being casted out by society distrusting of them which makes them vulnerable to re-radicalization and he emphasized the importance of integration. Since 2020, he had been publicly criticizing LGBT rights movement, although he said he wasn't against LGBT population but against "gender ideology" which he stated believes that gender/sex is fluid and socially constructed, denies biological reality of sexes and supports children being free to choose their gender, something which he argued is a hypersexualization of children, and he claimed that "gender ideology" was leading towards liberalization of pedophilia, referencing John Money's support for pedophilia, co-occurance of World Health Organization's replacement of "pedophilia" with "pedophilic disorder" in ICD-11 and supposed increase in prevalence of "gender ideology". While he previously identified as a liberal and continued to identify as such during this time, his political expressions were becaming increasingly more conservative and he started siding with multiple conservative parties and associations. During 2020 parliamentary election, he ran as a candidate on Miroslav Škoro Homeland Movement's list for the constituency (but he didn't actually register as its member). On 26 September 2020, he co-founded a political party Agrammers - Independent List and, as a member of the said party, he ran for the mayor of Zagreb in the 2021 election, but he dropped out after the party failed to gather enough votes for candidacy. On 21 January 2023, he co-founded a patriotic association Croatian Pulse, which would be rebranded as a political party in September of the same year, and, together with Damir Katulić, was elected as its first vice-president. In 2024 parliamentary election, he ran on the Party of Ivan Pernar's list. On 6 March 2025, he became a member of Home and National Rally and he told its members he wanted to protect national identity, sovereignty and Croatia's foundational values and give his contribution to conservative and state-forming politics.