The Croatian People's Party – Liberal Democrats ( or HNS) is a
social
Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not.
Etymology
The word "social" derives fro ...
-
liberal political party
A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...
in
Croatia
Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...
.
In the 11th
Sabor, since 2024, a single HNS representative forms a parliamentary club together with two independent representatives. HNS is an affiliate member of the
Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party.
Origins
The
People's Party in Croatia was originally formed in 1841, during the period of Croatian
romantic nationalism. The Croatian People's Party describes the events of the
Illyrian movement since 1835 as its history.. After 1861 the People's Party was known as the People's Liberal Party, its main splinter party was the Independent People's Party (1880–1903) which became more pro-autonomist, while the "old" People's Party developed into "party of the
Settlement" having collaborated with the pro-Hungarian
Unionist Party (known as the
People's Constitutional Party). The Progressive Party (1904–1906) and the Croatian People's Progressive Party (1906–1910) were also liberal parties in the
Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia
The Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia (; or ; ) was a nominally autonomous kingdom and constitutionally defined separate political nation within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was created in 1868 by merging the kingdoms of Kingdom of Croatia (Habs ...
as an autonomous part of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire.
In 1860, the national liberals formed in the
Dalmatia
Dalmatia (; ; ) is a historical region located in modern-day Croatia and Montenegro, on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea. Through time it formed part of several historical states, most notably the Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Croatia (925 ...
(Austrian part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire) the
National party known also as the
People's Party in Dalmatia. The party developed into a conservative party around 1889 (the National Croatian Party).
In the
first Yugoslavia (1918–1941), main liberal party was the
Independent Democratic Party composed by the Serbs from former Austro-Hungarian parts of the new state and Slovene centralist liberals.
During
Communism
Communism () is a political sociology, sociopolitical, political philosophy, philosophical, and economic ideology, economic ideology within the history of socialism, socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a ...
in the
second Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (commonly abbreviated as SFRY or SFR Yugoslavia), known from 1945 to 1963 as the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as Socialist Yugoslavia or simply Yugoslavia, was a country ...
(the
Socialist Republic of Croatia
The Socialist Republic of Croatia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Socijalistička Republika Hrvatska, Социјалистичка Република Хрватска), commonly abbreviated as SR Croatia and referred to as simply Croatia, was a ...
, SRH), the liberal leaders of the
League of Communists of Croatia were
Savka Dabčević-Kučar and
Miko Tripalo, who 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 () which had participated on the
first multi-party election of 1990, led by
Savka Dabčević-Kučar,
Miko Tripalo,
Dragutin Haramija 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
The Croatian Parliament () or the Sabor is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of Croatia. Under the terms of the Constitution of Croatia, Croatian Constitution, the Sabor represents the nation, people and is vested with legislative power. ...
. In 1994, construction entrepreneur
Radimir Čačić became party chairman. In the
1995 election they won 2 seats as part of an election alliance.
In the
January 2000 election, they formed a four-party coalition with
HSS,
LS and
IDS, which together won 25 seats in the
Parliament
In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
, two of whom were HNS representatives. As a result, the party participated in the 2000–2003 government of
Ivica Račan
Ivica Račan (; 24 February 1944 – 29 April 2007) was a Croatian politician who served as Prime Minister of Croatia from 2000 to 2003, heading two centre-left coalition governments.
Račan became the first prime minister of Croatia not to be a ...
through the minister of public works, construction and reconstruction Radimir Čačić. A few weeks later, the coalition's candidate and HNS member
Stjepan Mesić was
elected President of the Republic.
Also in 2000, HNS elected a new party chair,
Zagreb University professor of
sociology of politics Vesna Pusić.
In the
November 2003 elections, their alliance with the
Alliance of Primorje-Gorski Kotar and the
Slavonia-Baranja Croatian Party won 8% of the vote and 11 out of 151 seats, 10 of them HNS representatives. However, despite significantly improved results, the party moved to the opposition.
A second element of today's People's Party, the
Party of Liberal Democrats or Libra, originated in time of the Račan government when in 2002
Dražen Budiša, the leader of the
Croatian Social Liberal Party
The Croatian Social Liberal Party ( or HSLS) is a conservative-liberal political party in Croatia.
The HSLS were established in May 1989 in Zagreb
Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#Li ...
(HSLS), pulled out of the coalition. Ten members of parliament from Budiša's party, led by
Jozo Radoš, refused to bring down the government and instead split from the HSLS, forming Libra, the Party of Liberal Democrats. That party won 3 seats in the 2003 election. On 6 February 2005, most of the 1,250 representatives of HNS on its seventh convention voted to merge with Libra as the ''Croatian People's Party – Liberal Democrats''. The total number of parliamentary seats for the party increased to 13.
In the
November 2007 elections, the party ran on its own and got around 7% of the vote and 7 seats in the
Croatian Sabor. It remained in the opposition. In April 2008
Radimir Čačić was elected as party chair after defeating
Dragutin Lesar (MP). Lesar left the party, first acting as an independent MP, but then founded a splinter party,
Croatian Laburists in March 2010. Zlatko Horvat MP left the party as well.
In the
2011 elections, HNS participated in centre-left ''
Kukuriku coalition'' spearheaded by SDP. After the coalition won, HNS entered the
cabinet and held posts of foreign relations, commerce, culture etc. Čačić was reelected as a party chairman again in March 2012. After he was sentenced to a prison term due to a traffic accident in which two people died, he resigned from the cabinet and was forced to leave the party.
Vesna Pusić was elected as party president in 2013. On 21 September 2014 about 200 members from HNS
Zagreb
Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...
and
Varaždin branches each left the party in order to form
liberal and
centrist People's Party - Reformists under Radimir Čačić's leadership.
HNS held the same alliance in the parliamentary elections of 2015 and 2016 as a part of SDP-led ''People's coalition'', switching to opposition. After the party chairman
Ivan Vrdoljak and the party's general board decided to enter the government with centre-right
Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and support
Andrej Plenkovic's cabinet in the
parliament
In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
(overriding the opposition of party's presidency), in June 2017, four MPs and the only MEP (
Jozo Radoš) left the party to create
left of the centre Civic Liberal Alliance. This splinter also resulted in numerous party members and branch leaders leaving the party, either to join Civic Liberal Alliance or other parties. In October 2018, MP Marija Puh left the party fraction in the parliament to join
Milan Bandic's party, reducing the fraction further down to just four MPs.
In the run-up to the
2024 Croatian parliamentary election, HNS-LD decided to run together with HDZ, nominating a total of 4 candidates in 4 electoral units.
Chairpersons of the party
Election results
Legislative
The following is a summary of the party's results in legislative elections for the
Croatian parliament
The Croatian Parliament () or the Sabor is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of Croatia. Under the terms of the Constitution of Croatia, Croatian Constitution, the Sabor represents the nation, people and is vested with legislative power. ...
. The "Total votes" and "Percentage" columns include sums of votes won by pre-election coalitions HNS had been part of. After
preferential votes were added to the electoral system, the votes column also includes the statistic of the total number of such votes received by candidates of HNS on coalition lists. The "Total seats" column includes sums of seats won by HNS in election constituencies plus representatives of ethnic minorities affiliated with HNS.
European Parliament
Presidential
The following is a list of presidential candidates who were endorsed by HNS in elections for
President of Croatia.
See also
*
List of political parties in Croatia
*
List of liberal parties
*
Liberalism in Croatia
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Croatian People's Party - Liberal Democrats
Political parties established in 1990
1990 establishments in Croatia
Liberal parties in Croatia
Centrist parties in Croatia
Social liberal parties
Pro-European political parties in Croatia
Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party member parties
Organizations based in Zagreb