In the commemorations of the 40th anniversary of 1968 much has been written about France, the US and Czechoslovakia, but little about Yugoslavia. Yet that country, too, was deeply affected by the year of revolt. In Belgrade students demonstrated in favour of more socialism, carrying banners calling for “More Schools — Fewer Cars” and proclaiming “There is no Socialism without Freedom — and No Freedom without Socialism”.

In Croatia there was less emphasis on socialism and far more on nationalism; even the leading ranks of the Croatian League of Communists, or communist party, were taken over by those with a strong leaning towards nationalism. It was the beginning of the “Croatian Spring” which led to demands such as the granting of a separate seat for Croatia at the United Nations. By 1971 the movement was suppressed and the nationalist communists removed from power.

The Croatian Spring began as a cultural movement which wanted greater emphasis laid upon Croatian orthography and greater recognition of non-radical figures from Croatia’s past. The movement also gave greater scope to Croatian traditions in the arts, not least in music. In this field no one achieved greater recognition or popularity than Vice Vukov.

Born in Sibenik on the Dalmatian coast in 1936 Vice Vukov studied philosophy and Italian, which was much spoken in Dalmatia, at the University of Zagreb, later going to Paris to read law, economics and social sciences at the Institut des Hautes Études Internationales. But by the late 1950s it was clear that music, and more specifically singing, were where Vukov’s interests and talents lay. In 1959 he won first prize for singing at the Opatija Festival, in the northern Adriatic resort, with his rendition of Mirno teku rijeke (Gently flow the rivers), and in the subsequent decade he won more awards than any other singer in Yugoslavia.

In 1963 he represented his country in the Eurovision Song Contest; it was not entirely a happy experience as he scored only three points. But that was better than his second attempt in 1965 when he was rewarded with only two.

Although well established throughout the Yugoslav federation, Vukov reached his greatest fame in his native republic during the years of the Croatian Spring. His “noble, God- given baritone voice”, to use the words of one critic, seemed ideally suited to arrangements of traditional Croatian songs, the performances no doubt being enhanced by the emotional involvement of the singer with Croatia’s cultural reassertiveness. But the closing down of the Croatian Spring in 1971 brought the end of this phase of Vukov’s career. A number of his concerts were cancelled for fear of inflaming nationalist feelings; after 1971 he could no longer appear in public, all public performances of his work were banned and his recordings were removed from shops and libraries.

In 1972 he was touring Australia when police raided his home; his wife warned him not to return and from then until 1976 he lived in exile in France. Vukov maintained a dignified silence during the years of his exile, internal as well as external. But he was not forgotten. In 1986, when significant changes were afoot in Yugoslavia, a leader of a Bosnian pop group wanted Vukov to contribute to an LP entitled Spit and Sing, My Yugoslavia. Vukov was to sing only one track but it was one too many for the head of the Bosnian police who stepped in and vetoed the plan. It was too early for such adventurism, but by the end of the decade the thaw in communist domination had become a meltdown and Vukov was at last allowed to issue another album, although even then neither his name nor his image could appear on the cover. The authorities, however, did allow Vukov to reappear in public and a series of 14 concerts he gave in Zagreb’s Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall, the largest in Croatia, were all sell-outs.

In 1991 Croatia broke away from Yugoslavia and Vukov, though remaining active as a performer, now involved himself overtly in politics, becoming a member of the Social Democratic Party. In the 1990s he rose to prominence as a journalist and political commentator; he was later to write two books of political reflections. In 2001 it was suggested that he serve as Croatian Ambassador to Switzerland but this did not come about.

Vukov had for some time wished to become a deputy in the Croatian Parliament and had made a number of unsuccessful forays on to the hustings. In 2003 his persistence was rewarded. As a deputy his speeches earned the admiration of his party colleagues and the respect of his opponents, not least because Vukov seemed always to forgive those who had persecuted him in the past. But his parliamentary career was to be tragically short. On November 17, 2005, he tripped and fell on stairs at the assembly building and suffered severe head injuries.

He underwent emergency surgery but soon after the operation he lapsed into a coma. In March 2006 his doctors announced that he was in a persistent vegetative state, although there were later reports that he occasionally regained consciousness. He died in hospital.

He is survived by Dijana, his wife of 47 years, and their son and daughter.

Vice Vukov, singer and politician, was born on August 3, 1936. He died on September 24, 2008, aged 72