Croatian People's Party – Liberal Democrats

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The Croatian People's Party – Liberal Democrats (Croatian Hrvatska narodna stranka – Liberalni Demokrati; HNS) is a liberal party in Croatia.

HNS currently has 13 representatives in the Croatian Parliament and are the third largest political party in Croatia.

The party is a member of Liberal International and the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party. The HNS is led by Vesna Pusić.

Croatian People's Party – Liberal Democrats
LeaderVesna Pusic
Founded1990
HeadquartersZagreb
IdeologyCentrism and populism up to mid 90's, now liberalism
International affiliationEuropean Liberal Democrat and Reform Party
Website
Croatian People's Party - Liberal Democrats

History

The People's Party was originally formed in the 19th century during the period of Croatian romantic nationalism. Because it was formed as part of the Illyrian Movement which did not distinguish Croats from other South Slavs and instead called them all Illyrians, the party was named the Illyrian people's party (Ilirska narodna stranka) when it was formed in late 1841. Some of its champions from this time included Ivan Kukuljević Sakcinski, Josip Juraj Strossmayer and Ivan Mažuranić.

In 1861, the People's Party deputies in the Croatian Parliament went under the name People's Liberal Party (Narodna liberalna stranka).

It remained a powerful party until 1905, when the People's Party joined the Croatian-Serbian Coalition (Hrvatsko-srpska koalicija), together with the Party of Rights, as well as the Independents and the Radicals. After World War I, the Coalition ceased to exist and the People's Party was not reformed.

During Communism in the second Yugoslavia, the liberal leaders of the Croatian Communist Party were Savka Dabčević-Kučar and Miko Tripalo, which participated in the Croatian Spring of 1971.

Modern party

The modern Croatian People's Party was formed in late 1990 by members of the Coalition of People's Accord (Koalicija narodnog sporazuma) which had participated on the first multi-party election of 1990, led by Savka Dabčević-Kučar, Miko Tripalo and others.

The HNS remained a small opposition party. In the 1992 election they won 6.7% of the vote and attained 6 seats in the Croatian Parliament. In the 1995 election they won no seats.

In the 2000 election they participated in the four-party coalition with HSS, LS and IDS, which together won 25 seats in the Parliament. Two of those 25 deputies were members of HNS.

Subsequently, the People's Party participated in the 2000-2003 government of Ivica Račan through the minister of public works, construction and rebuilding, Radimir Čačić, previously a president of the party.

At the elections of November 2003, the alliance of the HNS with the Alliance of Primorje-Gorski Kotar and the Slavonia-Baranja Croatian Party won 8.0 % of the popular vote and 11 out of 151 seats, 10 seats of them occupied by the HNS.

A second element of today's People's Party, the Party of Liberal Democrats or Libra, originated in time of the Račan government when Dražen Budiša, the leader of the Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS), pulled out of the coalition. Several members of Budiša's party refused to bring down the government and instead split from the HSLS, forming Libra.

On February 6, 2005, most of the 1,250 representatives of HNS on its seventh convention voted to merge with the Party of Liberal Democrats (Libra) as the Croatian People's Party – Liberal Democrats. Libra had won 3 seats at the last elections, so the total number of seats for the party increased to 13.

See also

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