Parliamentary elections were held in

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

on 11 December 1938. The result was a victory for the governing Yugoslav Radical Union, which won 306 of the 373 seats in

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...

. These would be the last elections held in Yugoslavia before

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. By the time of the first postwar elections, in

1945 1945 marked the end of World War II and the fall of Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan. It is also the only year in which Nuclear weapon, nuclear weapons Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, have been used in combat. Events Below, ...

, the Communist Party of Yugoslavia was rapidly consolidating power, and the non-Communist opposition boycotted the vote after claiming to have been targeted with severe intimidation."Elections In Yugoslavia", ''The Times'', 9 November 1945 As a result, the 1938 elections would be the last

multi-party In political science, a multi-party system is a political system in which multiple political parties across the political spectrum run for national elections, and all have the capacity to gain control of government offices, separately or in coa ...

elections held in Yugoslavia until the

Communists Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

gave up their monopoly of power in 1990.

Coalitions

The Yugoslav Radical Union (JRZ, Jereza) led by PM

Milan Stojadinović Milan Stojadinović ( sr-Cyrl, Милан Стојадиновић; 4 August 1888 – 26 October 1961) was a Serbian and Yugoslav politician and economist who served as the Prime Minister of Yugoslavia from 1935 to 1939. He also served as Fore ...

, form an right-wing to far-right alliance with: *

Yugoslav National Party The Yugoslav National Party ( sh, Jugoslavenska nacionalna stranka, Југославенска национална странка, JNS; sl, Jugoslovanska nacionalna stranka), established as Yugoslav Radical Peasants' Democracy ( sh, Jugoslavensk ...

led by

Bogoljub Jevtić Bogoljub Jevtić (Serbian Cyrillic: Богољуб Јевтић; 24 December 1886 – 7 June 1960) was a Serbian diplomat and politician in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. He was plenipotentiary minister of Yugoslavia in Albania, Austria and Hungary. ...

, *

Yugoslav Muslim Organization The Yugoslav Muslim Organization (, ''JMO'') was an Ethnic Muslim (today Bosniak) political party in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, later in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. It was founded in Sarajevo on the 16 February 1919 and was led by ...

led by

Mehmed Spaho Mehmed Spaho (13 March 1883 – 29 June 1939) was a Bosnian politician and leader of the Yugoslav Muslim Organization. He was the first Bosnian Muslim politician in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Spaho was described as the "undispu ...

, * Slovene People's Party led by

Anton Korošec 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 Styr ...

and *

People's Radical Party The People's Radical Party ( sr, Народна радикална странка, Narodna radikalna stranka, abbr. НРС or NRS) was the dominant ruling party of Kingdom of Serbia and later Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes from the l ...

led by

Aca Stanojević Aleksa "Aca" Stanojević (Knjaževac, Principality of Serbia, 1852 - SFR Yugoslavia, 1947) was a Serbian and Yugoslav politician, one of the founders and leaders of the People's Radical Party. Stanojević was a member of the People's Radical Part ...

, which later leaves the alliance in favor of the United Opposition. The United Opposition alliance was consisted of: *

Croatian Peasant Party The Croatian Peasant Party ( hr, Hrvatska seljačka stranka, HSS) is an agrarian political party in Croatia founded on 22 December 1904 by Antun and Stjepan Radić as Croatian Peoples' Peasant Party (HPSS). The Brothers Radić believed that t ...

led by Vladko Maček * Independent Democratic Party led by

Srđan Budisavljević Srđan Budisavljević (8 December 1883 – 20 February 1968) was a politician and lawyer born in Požega. Budisavljević stuied law in Zagreb and Berlin before being elected to the Sabor of the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia in 1908 as a represent ...

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

led by

Ljubomir Davidović Ljubomir Davidović (24 December 1863 – 19 February 1940) was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician who served as prime minister (1919–1920 and 1924) of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (later called Yugoslavia). Biography Davidovi ...

* Agrarian Party led by

Jovan Jovanović Pižon Jovan Jovanović Pižon (; 3 September 1869 — 20 June 1939) was a Serbian diplomat, politician and writer who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Serbia from 18 June 1912 to 27 August 1912. Biography He was born in B ...

Montenegrin Federalist Party The Montenegrin Federalist Party (, , CFS), sometimes known simply as the Montenegrin Party, was a Montenegrin political party in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia which stood for preservation of Montenegrin autonomy and a decentralized federalised Yug ...

led by

Sekula Drljević Sekula Drljević (; 7 September 1884 – 10 November 1945) was a Montenegrin nationalist, Yugoslav jurist, politician, orator, and theoretician. During World War II, he was a collaborator with the Ustaše in the German puppet state of t ...

Results

Aftermath

Although the United Opposition, ''de facto'' led by the

leader Maček, had attracted 44.9% of the vote, due to the electoral rules by which the government parties received 40% of the seats in the National Assembly before votes were counted, the opposition vote only translated into 67 seats out of a total of 373.

second cabinet collapsed in February 1939, due to his pro-

Axis An axis (plural ''axes'') is an imaginary line around which an object rotates or is symmetrical. Axis may also refer to: Mathematics * Axis of rotation: see rotation around a fixed axis * Axis (mathematics), a designator for a Cartesian-coordinat ...

policy. He was replaced by

Dragiša Cvetković Dragiša Cvetković ( sr-cyr, Драгиша Цветковић; 15 January 1893 – 18 February 1969) was a Yugoslav politician active in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. He served as the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia from 1939 to 1941. ...

as Prime Minister and de jure JRZ leader. The Cvetković–Maček Cabinet was concluded in August 1939 establishing autonomous Banovina of Croatia. Maček became the

Deputy Prime Minister of Yugoslavia The Deputy Prime Minister of Yugoslavia was the official Deputy of the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, SFR Yugoslavia and later Prime Minister of FR Yugoslavia, from 1939 until 2003. History of the office The office of the Deputy Prim ...

and several members of the United Opposition were added to the new cabinet. Following the Cvetković government sign

Yugoslav accession to the Tripartite Pact On 25 March 1941, Yugoslavia signed the Tripartite Pact with the Axis powers. The agreement was reached after months of negotiations between Germany and Yugoslavia and was signed at the Belvedere in Vienna by Joachim von Ribbentrop, German forei ...

in March 1941, there was a faction led by the commander of the Royal Yugoslav Air Force (VVKJ), General

Dušan Simović Dušan Simović (; 28 October 1882 – 26 August 1962) was a Yugoslav Serb army general who served as Chief of the General Staff of the Royal Yugoslav Army and as the Prime Minister of Yugoslavia in 1940–1941. Biography Simović, born o ...

, that successfully realized a pro-Allied coup.

Sources

* *

References

External links

The Elections to the Parliament of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats & Slovenes 1920 - 1938

Parliamentary election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

Elections in Yugoslavia December 1938 events Election and referendum articles with incomplete results {{Yugoslavia-stub