Anton Korošec (, ; 12 May 1872 – 14 December 1940) was a Yugoslav politician, a prominent member of the conservative People's Party, a Roman Catholic priest and a noted orator. Early life Korošec was born in Biserjane (then Duchy of Styria, Austria-Hungary, now part of Slovenia) and went to school in Ptuj and in Maribor. He studied theology and was ordained as a priest in 1895. He completed his education with a doctorate in theology from the University of Graz in 1905. He was friends with Janez Evangelist Krek and adopted his political views. Political career In 1907, Korošec was elected to the Reichsrat as a member of the Slovenian People's Party, where, as president of the Yugoslav Club, he read out the May Declaration, which called for all South Slavs to be unified in one state unit within the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Following the break-up of Austria-Hungary, the National Council of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, of which Korošec was the president, declared the creation of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs on 29 October 1918. Earlier, Korošec and Nikola Pašić had agreed on the terms of the Geneva Declaration, in which the Kingdom of Serbia recognized the equal rights of the different components of such a state should it join with it in a confederation. From the very beginning however, Serbs favoured central control and the subsequent Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was a unitary monarchy. Korošec was vice-president in the first government of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1918. As the leader of the Slovenian People's Party he later collaborated in two right-leaning governments. Despite its defeat in 1920, the Slovenian People's Party was again victorious in Slovenia in 1924 and Korošec was chosen to be vice-president of the government. In 1924 and 1927, he was also minister for the interior. Korošec opposed the adoption of the Vidovdan Constitution and campaigned for greater autonomy for Slovenes within the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes until the Slovenian People's Party joined with Serbian radicals to form a centralist government and the idea was sidelined. Following Stjepan Radić’s assassination in 1928, in order to ensure more peace between ethnic groups the king called Korošec to lead the first government of Yugoslavia without a Serbian Prime Minister, but the monarch soon dismissed him when the :January 6th Dictatorship was proclaimed. Korošec was also a minister in