Luciano Delbianco was born on 10 June 1954, in
Pula. He completed his primary education in 1969, and his secondary education at the Technical School in Pula in 1973. In the same year, he enrolled at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Zagreb. He obtained the academic title of electrical engineer in 1977, and two years later started his postgraduate studies at the same faculty. After completing his studies in 1983, he received the academic degree of Master of Technical Sciences in the scientific field of electrical engineering. He worked at the
Uljanik dockyard from 1977 to 1979 and then at the technical department of Elektroistra in Pula (Association of Electric Power Organizations of Croatia), where he worked as an engineer for the development of distribution networks and as a technical manager. He entered politics in 1988 as vice-president of the Pula Municipal Assembly. After the first multi-party elections in 1990, he became the president of the Pula Municipal Assembly on the
SDP list. In the early 1990s, due to the growing pressure of the recently erupted
Croatian War of Independence, as the first man of the city and coordinator of the presidents of the municipal assemblies of Istria, he was one of the chief negotiators of the Pula city administration with the JNA together with
Igor Štoković and
Radovan Juričić. Since Pula was then one of the strongest JNA barracks on the Adriatic with 12,000 soldiers of all branches (
KoV,
JRZ and
JRM) and a large number of military equipment, Delbianco negotiated with the commanders of the 5th Naval Sector, Admirals
Pogačnik,
Barović and Rakić, on the peaceful departure of the JNA from the city. Despite occasional incidents, attempts to provoke an armed conflict and attacks on the Municipal Crisis Staff based at the
Communal Palace, he managed to have the JNA leave the city peacefully on 15 December 1991. In the negotiations, Delbianco achieved the takeover from the JNA of 78 military facilities on 154 hectares of land and all the weapons of the Territorial Defense. He served as President of the Municipal Assembly of Pula until 1993, when he became the first
Mayor of Pula due to legal changes in the administrative structure of the state. On the eve of the 1993 local elections, he joined the
IDS with a group of SDP members. He won the election with almost 73 percent of the vote and thus became the first Istrian prefect. In January 1997, at the Pazin County Assembly, IDS members voted no confidence in the prefect, so Delbianco did not reach the end of his term. ==References==