A group of people restored Croatian Party of Rights on 25 February 1990.[10]Dobroslav Paraga, the first president of the party acknowledged the historical bounds with the older Party of Rights. Soon, the party faced splits.[10] Krešimir Pavelić, a former secretary of the party, became president of the new Croatian Democratic Party of Rights.[10] Some other rights parties that claimed origin from old Party of Rights appeared.[10] Croatian Party of Rights did not participate in the Croatian parliamentary election in 1990,[11] which helped Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) to win more votes.[11]
The parties membership grew at a rapid rate, with the party having 18,000 members by the end of 1990, and grew to over 100,000 members by the end of fall in 1991, with thousands of supporters attending the parties rallies and protests.[12]Muslims often joined the HSP, falsifying their nationality to be Croatian while stating they were their fathers and grandfathers.[13]
HSP's political appeal and strength were at peak during the 1991–92 when Croatian Defence Forces, a military wing of the HSP, took heavy burden of defence of Croatia.[11] Paraga was the champion of the Croatian will for freedom and independence.[14] Paraga harshly and openly criticized Franjo Tuđman for his cooperation with Serbia and the conflict with Bosniaks in Bosnia and Herzegovina.[14] The HSP used the writings of Ante Starčević and the writings of Ustaše ideologues such as Mile Budak to argue that Tuđman was not radical enough in his defence of the Croatian state.[15]
The ruling HDZ cooperated with the HSP until the fall of Vukovar, after which the leaders of the HSP and HOS were imprisoned for "terrorist activities" and "obstruction of democratically elected government". Paraga and the Croatian Party of Rights appeared in front of a military tribunal on allegations of insubordination.[10] They were later released. Paraga's main political and electoral platform was the creation of a Greater Croatia and the total defeat of the Serbian aggressor.[11] In the Croatian parliamentary election held in 1992, HDZ lost 7% of votes in favor of the Party of Rights.[11]
One of the party's first post-communist leaders, Ante Paradžik was a political dissident during the former Yugoslavia when he was a student leader of the Croatian Spring, but he was killed during the war by assassination. Paraga found himself in a power struggle with his deputy, Anto Đapić. Paraga and Đapić fought a legal battle for the right to use the party name, a dispute that Paraga eventually lost. Paraga later formed the Croatian Party of Rights 1861 (HSP 1861) but by this time he was already politically marginalized.[citation needed]
On 17 September 1993, the leaders of the three rights parties held a meeting in Kutina and began preparations for a new union on a broad common rights program.[10] The initiative for the meeting came from the new leaders of the HSP, Đapić and Boris Kandare,[10] who invited leaders of the Croatian Pure Party of Rights and the Croatian National Democratic League but the meeting was unsuccessful, and those parties are still acting separately.[10] During the parliamentary election in 1995, HSP lost popularity due to bad situation in the party in favor of HDZ.[11]
The old logo of the HSP, being much wider and shorter
The long-time president of modern HSP was Đapić. His political reputation was severely tarnished after the media found out that he cheated to obtain his first post-graduate degree in law at the University of Split, in collusion with Kandare, a senior member of his party and professor at the Law Faculty.
In 2000, Paraga again initiated a dispute about the Kutina Assembly before the Supreme Court, which accepted his lawsuit in May 2000, canceling the conclusion of the Ministry of Public Administration from 1998. He continued to claim that Đapić was not a member of the party and that he falsified his membership. However, on 20 July 2002, the Supreme Court sided with Đapić. The Ministry of Justice and Public Administration issued a decision according to which the leadership of the HSP did not violate the procedure and the law in any detail at the Kutin Assembly.
He was also publicly accused of faking injuries to obtain the status of a war veteran. Despite these revelations, Đapić's career as head of the HSP was unaffected. Even after the party was left by many and it had terrible results, losing seven out of eight seats from 2003, and during the Croatian elections in 2007, he remained as head of the party. He temporarily resigned, but in less than few weeks he had withdrawn his resignation.[citation needed]
At the 2003 Croatian parliamentary election, the HSP was in an alliance with Međimurje Party, Zagorje Democratic Party and non-partisan Slaven Letica. Together, they won 6.4% of the popular vote and 8 out of 151 seats, all for the HSP and Letica. In August 2005, the Croatian Democratic Republican Party, a right-wing political party established on 21 October 2000, by merger of three smaller right-wing parties,[16] merged into the HSP.
At the party convention held on 7 November 2009, Đapić officially stepped down, allowing a new leader to be elected by party members. Daniel Srb defeated two other candidates to become the new president of the party. The HSP announced that during the Croatian parliamentary election in 2011 holders of their list in VII Electoral District (primary Lika and Gorski Kotar) would be exclusively women.[18]
The party, for the first time, didn't win any parliamentary seats in the 2011 Croatian parliamentary election, which led to a crisis in Party of Rights; leaders of the Dalmatian branch of the party called for resignation of honorary president Anto Đapić.[19] The president of the HSP in Split, Hrvoje Tomašević, asked for Đapić's resignation from politics and election in the party.[19] He was supported by the president of the HSP in Dubrovnik, Denis Šešelj.[19] This appeal resulted in Đapić's resignation from party politics.[20]
On 28 January 2013, the Presidency of the Croatian Party of Rights expelled its former honorary president Đapić from the party.[21] Srb, the party's president, said that Đapić expelled as he broke his promise that he wouldn't be active in politics. Đapić said that he was shocked by the decision.[22]
On 16 July 2020, the county council of HSP Split reached a unanimous conclusion on demanding the resignation of the parties presidency and the president, Karlo Starčević, which he strongly opposed at the presidency session. HSP Split officials gave a statement, in which they resigned and left the party.[23]
Election results
Legislative
The following is a summary of the party's results in legislative elections for the Croatian Parliament. The "Total votes" and "Percentage" columns include sums of votes won by pre-election coalitions HSP had been part of and the "Total seats" column includes sums of seats won by HSP in election constituencies plus representatives of ethnic minorities affiliated with HSP.
The Croatian Democratic Union is a major conservative, centre-right political party in Croatia. It is one of the two major contemporary political parties in Croatia, along with the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SDP). It is currently the largest party in the Sabor with 62 seats. The HDZ governed Croatia from 1990 before the country gained independence from Yugoslavia until 2000 and, in coalition with junior partners, from 2003 to 2011, and since 2016. The HDZ's leader, Andrej Plenković, is the current Prime Minister of Croatia, having taken office following the 2016 parliamentary election.
Anto Đapić is a Croatian far right politician and the former president of the Croatian Party of Rights (HSP). He served as a representative in the Croatian Parliament, a post he was elected to at the 1992, 1995, 2000, 2003 and 2007 elections.
Croatian Pure Party of Rights is a far-right political party in Croatia founded in 1992. The party claims to be an ideological descendant of the identically named right-wing Serbophobic historical party which was active in the early 20th century and which advocated the right to self-determination for Croatia at the time when it was part of Austria-Hungary and Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
Dobroslav Paraga is a Croatian right-wing politician. He was first president of the Croatian Party of Rights, after the party was reestablished in 1991. In 1993 he founded the Croatian Party of Rights 1861 following a political split from Anto Đapić.
The Croatian Party of Rights of Bosnia and Herzegovina is an extra-parliamentary party in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The party was established in 2004 as a splinter of the Croatian Party of Rights established in 1991, under the name Croatian Party of Rights Đapić-dr. Jurišić, named after its founders Anto Đapić and Zvonko Jurišić. In 2010, the main party dissolved, while the Croatian Party of Rights Đapić-dr. Jurišić usurped their name.
The Croatian Defence Forces were the paramilitary arm of the Croatian Party of Rights (HSP) from 1991 to 1992, during the first stages of the Yugoslav wars. During the Croatian War of Independence, the HOS organised several early companies and participated in Croatia's defence. At the peak of the war in Croatia, the HOS was several battalions in size. The first HOS units were headed by Ante Paradžik, a HSP member who was killed by Croatian police in September 1991. After the November 1991 general mobilisation in Croatia and the January 1992 cease-fire, the HOS was absorbed by the Croatian Army.
The Croatian Party of Rights is the name of a contemporary Croatian conservative political party which was founded in 1990 after the introduction of multi-party democracy in the country. It claims lineage to the historical party of the same name which was active between 1861 and 1929 and which advocated for the Croatian state right, a right to self-determination at the time when Croatia was part of Austria-Hungary and Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
Ruža Tomašić is a Croatian politician who has been a Member of the European Parliament since July 2013, having been elected to the position three times. She resigned from the position in June 2021 to retire from politics.
Croatian Party of Rights Dr. Ante Starčević was a nationalist political party in Croatia.
Živko Budimir is a Bosnian Croat politician who served as the 9th President of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of the two autonomous entities that compose Bosnia and Herzegovina, from 17 March 2011 until 9 February 2015. He is the founder and current president of the Party of Justice and Trust.
Ivan Vekić was a Croatian politician and lawyer. He was one of the founders of the Croatian Democratic Union and served as the Croatian Minister of Interior during the Croatian War of Independence.
Croat People's Union was a Bosnian Croat political party in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Party was founded by Ivo Pilar in 1910 with goal to represent interests of Croats in the Condominium of Bosnia and Herzegovina. With creation of Kingdom of Yugoslavia, HNZ become inactive and was refounded in 1992 by Milenko Brkić and in 2010 it was incorporated into the Croatian Party of Rights of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Pero Kovačević is Croatian lawyer and politician. Kovačević was the most active member of parliament during the 5th assembly of the Sabor, the Croatian parliament.
The Croatian National Assembly is a political organisation of Croat political parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The organisation serves as a platform to coordinate political and cultural activities of different parties and stakeholders in the Croatian community and to promote the initiative to create a federal unit with Croatian majority in the country.
Presidential elections were held in Croatia on 28 December 2014 and 11 January 2015, the sixth such elections since independence in 1991. Only four candidates contested the elections, the lowest number since 1997. Incumbent President Ivo Josipović, who had been elected as the candidate of the Social Democratic Party in 2009–2010 but ran as an independent, was eligible to seek reelection for a second and final five-year term. As no candidate received 50% of the vote in the first round in December 2014, a run-off took place in January 2015 between the two candidates with the most votes; Josipović and Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović. Grabar-Kitarović went on to win the elections by a slim margin of 32,509 votes or 1.48%, making her Croatia's first female president.
Presidential elections were held in Croatia on 22 December 2019. Social Democratic Party nominee Zoran Milanović narrowly defeated incumbent president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović in a second round of voting.
The Croatian Peasant Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina is a Croatian political party in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
European Parliament elections were held in Croatia on 26 May 2019, electing members of the national Croatia constituency to the European Parliament. These were the third such elections in the country since its accession to the European Union in 2013.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
