Croatian Growth (, acronym ''Hrast'' is a Croatian word for

Oak tree An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the Fagaceae, beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northe ...

) or Hrast-Movement for Successful Croatia was a

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, ...

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 ...

established in 2012. Its founding was initiated by several

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

NGOs A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

, Croatian section of

Radio Maria Radio Maria, formally known as The World Family of Radio Maria, is an international Roman Catholicism, Catholic radio broadcasting service founded in Erba (CO), Erba, province of Como, in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milan, diocese of Milan ...

, Croatian Republican Union, Family Party,

Christian Democrat Christian democracy is an ideology inspired by Christian ethics#Politics, Christian social teaching to respond to the challenges of contemporary society and politics. Christian democracy has drawn mainly from Catholic social teaching and neo ...

politician

Ante Ledić Ante Ladić (born 12 October 1939 in Aržano, in Yugoslavia) is a Croatian businessman, politician from and vice-president of Croatian Christian Democratic Party. In his youth, Ledić was a Yugoslav champion and national record holder in long jum ...

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

Hrvoje Hitrec Hrvoje Hitrec (born 14 July 1943) is a Croatian writer, screenwriter, and politician. He is notable for his works for children and youth, most famous of his works being the novel (and later a very popular 1980s/90s TV series) '' Smogovci'' hr" ...

and two candidates in 2010 Presidential elections in Croatia,

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

Josip Jurčević Josip Jurčević (born April 19, 1951) is a Croatian historian and politician. Born in the village of Studenci near the southern town of Imotski, Jurčević grew up in Zagreb. He graduated in history and philosophy from the Faculty of Humanitie ...

and

Miroslav Tuđman Miroslav Tuđman (; 25 May 1946 – 31 January 2021) was a Croatian scientist and politician, the son and eldest child of the first President of Croatia, Franjo Tuđman, and his wife Ankica. Biography Tuđman was born in Belgrade, where he comp ...

, son of first Croatian president

Franjo Tuđman Franjo Tuđman (14 May 1922 – 10 December 1999) was a Croatian politician and historian who became the first president of Croatia, from 1990 until his death in 1999. He served following the Independence of Croatia, country's independe ...

. The party maintains contacts with

European Christian Political Party The European Christian Political Party (ECPP), formerly known as the European Christian Political Movement (ECPM) from 2002 to April 2025, is a European political party exclusively working on promoting Christian values. The party unites nationa ...

. In the 2013 European Parliament election, Croatian Growth received 2,55% of votes, which was not enough to gain a seat. The party participated in the

Patriotic Coalition The Patriotic Coalition () was a political alliance in Croatia formed in 2015. The parties signed the coalition agreement on 21 September 2015. On 2015 Croatian parliamentary election, 2015 parliamentary election, coalition won a relative majority ...

at the

2015 Croatian parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Croatia on 8 November 2015. All 151 seats in the Parliament were up for election. This parliamentary election was the 8th since the first multi-party election in 1990 and the first since Croatia joined the ...

. In that election, it became possible for candidates to receive preferential votes, and the candidates of Hrast won a total of 8,800 (out of a coalition total of 771,070). Ladislav Ilčić served as MP until new

2016 Croatian parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Croatia on 11 September 2016, with all 151 seats in the Croatian Parliament up for election. The elections were preceded by a successful motion of no confidence against Prime Minister Tihomir Orešković and h ...

, when he was replaced by Hrvoje Zekanović, party's vicepresident. Since April 2018, HRAST is no longer part of the ruling HDZ coalition because of disagreement over the ratification of the

Istanbul Convention The Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, better known as the Istanbul Convention, is a International human rights instruments, human rights treaty of the Council of Europe oppos ...

. In July 2018, HRAST signed a political cooperation pact with

Croatian Conservative Party The Croatian Conservative Party ( or HKS) was a conservative political party in Croatia. Last president of the party was Marijan Pavliček. It was founded on 20 November 2014. It joined the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists (now ...

. In February 2019, they launched political platform called

Croatian Sovereignists The Croatian Sovereignists () are a conservative and Christian right-wing political party in Croatia. The party was founded in 2019 and is led by Marijan Pavliček. The party grew out of a coalition formed ahead of the 2019 European Parliament e ...

together with several

and prominent intellectuals for the upcoming

2019 European Parliament election The 2019 European Parliament election was held in the European Union (EU) between 23 and 26 May 2019. It was the ninth parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979. A total of 751 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) we ...

. On October 2, 2021, a unification assembly was held in Croatia's capital

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 ...

. During the assembly, it was announced that three smaller

and

right-wing Right-wing politics is the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position based on natural law, economics, authority, property ...

parties (

, Croatian Growth - Movement for Successful Croatia and the

Generation of Renewal A generation is all of the people born and living at about the same time, regarded collectively. It also is "the average period, generally considered to be about 20–⁠30 years, during which children are born and grow up, become adults, and b ...

) will become

defunct Defunct may refer to: * Defunct (video game), ''Defunct'' (video game), 2014 * Zombie process or defunct process, in Unix-like operating systems See also

* * :Former entities * End-of-life product * Obsolescence {{Disambiguation ...

to merge and work together as the Croatian Sovereignists.

Election results

Legislative

European Parliament

References

External links

* {{Croatian political parties Conservative parties in Croatia Croatian nationalist parties Political parties established in 2011 Political parties disestablished in 2021 2011 establishments in Croatia 2021 disestablishments in Croatia National conservative parties Social conservative parties European Christian Political Party