Bran Maj (born 1960) is a prominent Kresimirian businessman, political financier, and politician. As the chairman of the conglomerate corporation Maj Holdings, he is one of the wealthiest and most influential individuals in the Republic. A long-time political actor, he has served as a Senator for his home district of Pologradska since 2002. He has sat as the only independent Senator in the Assembly since 2015, and previously served as a Senator for the nationalist Vjetrusa party from 2002 to 2015.
Early Life and Business Career
Bran Maj was born in the city of Polograd in 1960. He did not come from a political family, instead embarking on a career in business in the late 1970s. He inherited Pologradska Agro-Trade from his grandfather, and continued acquiring and consolidating several local agricultural cooperatives in Pologradska.
Displaying a sharp business acumen, he reinvested his profits and expanded aggressively. In the 1980s, his company moved into heavy industry, acquiring aging but valuable steel and iron plants in the industrial hub of Novi Otonik. This expansion continued over the next two decades, with his company, now named Maj Holdings, diversifying into logistics, manufacturing, and retail. By the early 2000s, Maj Holdings had become a massive national conglomerate, with estimates suggesting it owned or held controlling stakes in nearly 45% of all business operating in Kresimiria.
Maj’s most strategic maneuver against the Blue Dawn establishment was the founding of Prosperity Trust Bank in 2009. By creating his own financial institution, he insulated his empire from the credit squeezes orchestrated by his rival Petar Czyhlarz, securing the capital necessary to fund his political ambitions in Vjetrusa.
Political Activism and Financial Influence
Long before entering electoral politics, Maj was a significant political force behind the scenes. As a staunch capitalist, he became a vocal and powerful opponent of the economic policies of Blue Dawn under the leadership of the former trade unionist Ljubo Sanjakorin (1981–2002). Maj publicly decried what he saw as the party’s socialist-leaning and pro-union tendencies, arguing they stifled economic growth.
During the 1980s and 90s, he leveraged his immense wealth to become a major political financier, contributing heavily to parties and candidates opposing Blue Dawn. His financial backing is widely believed to have been a key factor in the resurgence of the Civic Renewal Front (CRF) under Mia Marija Pavlovic, which culminated in the party’s historic success in the 1992 election.
However, Maj’s alignment with the CRF was purely economic. As a social conservative, he found himself at odds with the CRF’s increasingly liberal platform on social issues, such as its staunch defense of marriage equality and abortion rights. These disagreements prevented him from ever formally joining the party he had helped to fund.
Senatorial Career
Seeking a political home that aligned with both his economic and social views, Maj turned to the nationalist and conservative Vjetrusa party. He contributed heavily to Senator Misko Maretic’s successful 1992 campaign in District VIII (Zahodecelska). In the 2002 election, he ran for the first time as a candidate for the Assembly. He successfully won a seat in his home district of Pologradska, becoming the third Vjetrusa Senator along with Misko Maretic and Viktor Durak, serving in Pologradska alongside veteran Senator and Sons of Kresimir party leader Tihomir Bran.
As a Senator, Bran Maj has been an influential voice for pro-business, nationalist, and socially conservative policies. He is known for his advocacy of deregulation and his opposition to the state-run Federal Councils. His immense personal wealth and business connections make him a uniquely powerful figure the Assembly.
Maj’s early tenure in the Assembly has been marked by a fierce intra-party rivalry with his former Vjetrusa colleague, Viktor Durak. While Maj championed the interests of the private sector, Durak represented the party’s populist, protectionist base. Maj was a key supporter of the 2006 Import Tariff Revision Act. His vote for the bill caused a public rift with his Vjetrusa colleague Viktor Durak, who opposed the measure. The Act directly benefited Maj’s business empire, lowering costs for Maj Steel and allowing his newly acquired Kasa24 chain to stock high-margin foreign goods. The conflict reached its peak in 2015 when Durak voted against Maj’s interests to pass the Digital Vigilance Act.
This confrontation led Maj to resign from Vjetrusa, declaring he could no longer work with “populist obstructionists” who prioritized ideology over economic pragmatism. Since leaving the party, he has sat as the Assembly’s only independent Senator,
He has been comfortably re-elected in both the 2012 and 2022 elections and continues to serve as an independent Senator.