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103-586: The party was led by Ivo Lončar , a popular television news reporter who was elected as a member of the 2000-2003 Parliament from the Croatian Peasant Party list; he subsequently left the party and became an independent deputy. In the November 2003 election he led the party list of HDSS and two other smaller parties and managed to retain his seat in the Parliament . The alliance won 1.0% of

206-526: A Greater Croatia that would include territories inhabited by Bosniaks , Serbs , and Slovenes , considering Bosniaks and Serbs to be Croats who had been converted to Islam and Orthodox Christianity , and considered the Slovenes "mountain Croats". Starčević argued that the large Serb presence in territories claimed by a Greater Croatia was the result of recent settlement, encouraged by Habsburg rulers, and

309-521: A Bulgarian revolutionary, Vlado Chernozemski , was killed by French police. Three Ustaše members who had been waiting at different locations for the king— Mijo Kralj , Zvonimir Pospišil and Milan Rajić—were captured and sentenced to life imprisonment by a French court. Following the German invasion of France , the men were released from prison. Ante Pavelić, along with Eugen Kvaternik and Ivan Perčević, were subsequently sentenced to death in absentia by

412-502: A Croatian state under Italian protection. Maček wrote back declining the offer and saying that was not what he asked for and that he had struck a deal with Cvetković government in the meantime. The Cvetković–Maček Agreement was concluded on 26 August 1939 establishing autonomous Banovina of Croatia . Maček became the deputy prime minister of Yugoslavia and several members of the Peasant–Democratic Coalition were added to

515-541: A French court, as the real organizers of the deed. The Ustaše believed that the assassination of King Alexander had effectively "broken the backbone of Yugoslavia" and that it was their "most important achievement." Soon after the assassination, all organizations related to the Ustaše as well as the Hrvatski Domobran , which continued as a civil organization, were banned throughout Europe. Under pressure from France,

618-520: A coalition with Serbian People's Radical Party . This resulted in HSS losing its popularity which was seen in 1927 election when it lost almost third of votes won in the previous elections. After the termination of the coalition agreement with the Radicals, HSS formed Peasant-Democratic Coalition with Pribičević 's Independent Democratic Party . In 1928, Vladko Maček become the new president of HSS after

721-676: A federal unit for Croatia within Yugoslavia, with joint foreign affairs, defence, central bank, state monopolies, and customs. He modified the territorial demands by moving the Vrbas line to the Bosna River . In return, the Italian Foreign Ministry drafted a document offering Maček a loan to finance an uprising which the HSS would launch and then invite Italian military intervention. The plan also envisaged establishment of

824-705: A gendarme outpost at Brušani in the Lika / Velebit area, in an apparent attempt to intimidate the Yugoslav authorities. The incident has sometimes been termed the " Velebit uprising ". The Ustaše's most infamous terrorist act was carried out on 9 October 1934, when working with the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO), they assassinated King Alexander I of Yugoslavia in Marseille, France. The perpetrator,

927-524: A large following in Bosnia and Herzegovina, was praised by the Ustaše as the religion that "keeps true the blood of Croats." The Ustaše viewed the Bosniaks as " Muslim Croats ", and as a result, they were not persecuted on the basis of race. That being said, Muslims were not free from persecution and atrocities by the Ustaše, even if not on the basis of religion or ethnicity. The majority of Muslims preferred

1030-466: A line between Ilok and Sremska Mitrovica , and Dalmatia without the Bay of Kotor with the addition of Bosnia and Herzegovina west of Vrbas and Neretva Rivers. At the time, Italy was harbouring and supporting Croatian nationalist group Ustaše , but Ciano preferred to work with Maček because the HSS enjoyed far greater support among Croats and because Ciano believed that would discourage contacts between

1133-489: A loss of the support they had gained by creating a Croatian national state. With the German surrender , end of World War II in Europe , and the establishment of socialist Yugoslavia in 1945, the Ustaše movement and their state totally collapsed. Many members of the Ustaše militia and Croatian Home Guard who subsequently fled the country were taken as prisoners of war and subjected to forced marches and executions during

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1236-460: A much lower educational level were viewed as violent, ignorant and fanatical by the "home" Ustaše while the "home" Ustaše were dismissed as "soft" by the "emigres" who saw themselves as a "warrior-elite". After March 1937, when Italy and Yugoslavia signed a pact of friendship, Ustaše and their activities had been banned, which attracted the attention of young Croats, especially university students, who would become sympathizers or members. In 1936,

1339-462: A name it kept until World War II. In English, Ustasha, Ustashe, Ustashas and Ustashi are used for the movement or its members. One of the major ideological influences on the Croatian nationalism of the Ustaše was 19th century Croatian activist Ante Starčević , an advocate of Croatian unity and independence, who was both anti- Habsburg and anti-Serbian in outlook. He envisioned the creation of

1442-533: A response to Ustaše challenge for dominance among Croats as a force capable of providing physical protection following the Velebit uprising . It was meant to demonstrate that the HSS is not a pacifist organisation resigned to passivity. In cities, the HSZ operated under the name of Croatian Civil Defence. In 1936 and 1937, Maček unsuccessfully negotiated with Regent Prince Paul Prime Minister Milan Stojadinović with

1545-673: A return to autonomy under Habsburg rule . Most Muslims were reportedly either neutral or opposed to the Ustaše regime. Despite Pavelić’s promises of equality between Catholics and Muslims, many Muslims became dissatisfied with Croat rule. Muslims (Bosniaks) comprised approximately 12% of the civil service and armed forces of the NDH. Economically, the Ustaše supported the creation of a corporatist economy. The movement believed that natural rights existed to private property and ownership over small-scale means of production free from state control. Armed struggle, revenge and terrorism were glorified by

1648-623: A single self-governing unit and stopping Italian immigration by abolishing the 1925 Treaty of Nettuno . In November, the HSS formed the Peasant-Democratic Coalition with the Independent Democratic Party ( Samostalna demokratska stranka , SDS), the most popular party among the Serbs of Croatia . Tense relations between the opposition and the government deteriorated further until a shouting match in

1751-545: 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 the realization of Croatian statehood was possible within Austria-Hungary , but that it had to be reformed as a Monarchy divided into three equal parts – Austria, Hungary and Croatia. After the creation of Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1918,

1854-460: Is in Jewish hands. This became possible only through the support of the state, which thereby seeks, on one hand, to strengthen the pro-Serbian Jews, and on the other, to weaken Croat national strength. The Jews celebrated the establishment of the so-called Yugoslav state with great joy, because a national Croatia could never be as useful to them as a multi-national Yugoslavia; for in national chaos lies

1957-565: The Bay of Kotor . However, a few days after the declaration of independence, the Ustaše were forced to sign the Treaty of Rome where they surrendered part of Dalmatia and Krk , Rab , Korčula , Biograd , Šibenik , Split , Čiovo , Šolta , Mljet and part of Konavle and the Bay of Kotor to Italy . De facto control over this territory varied for the majority of the war, as the Yugoslav Partisans grew more successful, while

2060-607: The Bleiburg repatriations . Various underground and exile successor organisations created by former Ustaše members, such as the Crusaders and the Croatian Liberation Movement , tried to continue the movement to little success. The word ustaša (plural: ustaše ) is derived from the intransitive verb ustati (Croatian for rise up ). " Pučki-ustaša " ( German : Landsturm ) was a military rank in

2163-564: The Communists . During the period of SFR Yugoslavia (1945–1991), HSS was active abroad. On 25 May 1991, HSS was restored under the leadership of Drago Stipac at the so-called Assembly of Unification . The party first entered Government after 2000 elections , on which it participated as part of liberal coalition (HSS- IDS - HNS - LS - SDA ), with Ivica Račan ( SDP ) serving as Prime Minister and its president Zlatko Tomčić as Parliament Speaker . After HSS lost 2003 election , it moved to

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2266-804: The Croatian Orthodox Church was founded, as a further means to destroy the Serbian Orthodox Church, but this new Church gained very few followers. While initial focus was against Serbs, as the Ustaše grew closer to the Nazis they adopted antisemitism. In 1936, in "The Croat Question", Ante Pavelić placed Jews third among "the Enemies of the Croats" (after Serbs and Freemasons , but before Communists): writing: ″Today, practically all finance and nearly all commerce in Croatia

2369-751: The Croatian Party of Rights contributed to the writing of the Domobran , until around Christmas 1928 when the newspaper was banned by authorities of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes . In January 1929 the king banned all national parties, and the radical wing of the Party of Rights was exiled, including Pavelić, Jelić and Gustav Perčec. This group was later joined by several other Croatian exiles. On 22 March 1929, Zvonimir Pospišil , Mijo Babić , Marko Hranilović , and Matija Soldin murdered Toni Šlegel,

2472-531: The Domobran tried to engage with and radicalize moderate Croats, using Radić's assassination to stir up emotions within the divided country. By 1929 two divergent Croatian political streams had formed: those who supported Pavelić's view that only violence could secure Croatia's national interests, and the Croatian Peasant Party, led then by Vladko Maček , successor to Stjepan Radić, which had much greater support among Croats. Various members of

2575-480: The Drina River and extend to the border of Belgrade . The movement advocated a racially "pure" Croatia and promoted genocide against Serbs—due to the Ustaše's anti-Serb sentiment —and Holocaust against Jews and Roma via Nazi racial theory , and persecution of anti-fascist or dissident Croats and Bosniaks. The Ustaše viewed the Bosniaks as " Muslim Croats ", and as a result, Bosniaks were not persecuted on

2678-543: The Imperial Croatian Home Guard (1868–1918). The same term was the name of Croatian third-class infantry regiments ( German : Landsturm regiments ) during World War I (1914–1918). Another variation of the word ustati is ustanik (plural: ustanici ) which means an insurgent , or a rebel. The name ustaša did not have fascist connotations during the early years of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia as

2781-646: The Partisans . But the vast majority of HSS supporters remained passive and neutral for the duration of the war as the Ustasha, the communist Partisans and the royalist Chetniks fought for control. After the communist victory, the KPJ established one-party rule — the HSS, along with other political parties were declared illegal. In 1947, HSS joined the International Peasants' Union . Maček represented

2884-656: The Peasant International , the regime initiated a campaign to suppress the party activities in the run up to the 1925 Yugoslav parliamentary election using political, police, military and paramilitary pressure, and arresting its leaders. Even though the party achieved the second-largest share of seats, the government retained its parliamentary majority. Nonetheless, shortly after the election, there were negotiations between Radić and King Alexander 's envoys. The talks ended in Radić renouncing republicanism and accepting

2987-586: The Pure Party of Rights , which became the main pool of members of the subsequent Ustaše movement. Historian John Paul Newman stated that Austro-Hungarian officers' "unfaltering opposition to Yugoslavia provided a blueprint for the Croatian radical right, the Ustaše". The Ustaše promoted the theories of Milan Šufflay , who is believed to have claimed that Croatia had been "one of the strongest ramparts of Western civilization for many centuries", which he claimed had been lost through its union with Serbia when

3090-552: The assassination of Stjepan Radić . After King Alexander declared dictatorship in 1929, HSS was banned and its members prosecuted. HSS participated in the 1935 and 1938 election as a part of the United opposition coalition which helped it to regain its influence. In 1939, Cvetković–Maček Agreement helped in the establishing of the HSS-governed Banovina of Croatia . After the establishment of Nazi-puppet state,

3193-550: The dualist Austria-Hungary at the time. The founding of the HPSS was a part of the process of fragmentation of the United Croat Opposition  [ hr ] . The party pursued the establishment of a comprehensive grassroots network, national unity and agrarianism , as the Radić's distrusted traditional political parties. Even though the HPSS achieved only minor significance before the end of World War I ,

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3296-603: The "Legal Provision on the Nationalization of the Property of Jews and Jewish Companies", on 10 October 1941, and with it they confiscated all Jewish property. Already on their first day, 10–11 April 1941, Ustaše arrested a group of prominent Zagreb Jews and held them for ransom. On 13 April the same was done in Osijek , where Ustaše and Volksdeutscher mobs also destroyed the synagogue and Jewish graveyard. This process

3399-458: The "unwanted" being all Jews, Serbs and Yugoslav-oriented Croats who were all thrown out except for some deemed specifically needed by the government. This would leave a multitude of jobs to be filled by Ustašes and pro-Ustaše adherents and would lead to government jobs being filled by people with no professional qualifications. During the 1920s, Ante Pavelić, lawyer, politician and one of the followers of Josip Frank's Pure Party of Rights , became

3502-601: The 21-year-old Jelić into the organization as a junior member. A related movement, the Domobranski Pokret—which had been the name of the legal Croatian army in Austria-Hungary—began publication of Hrvatski Domobran , a newspaper dedicated to Croatian national matters. The Ustaše sent Hrvatski Domobran to the United States to garner support for them from Croatian-Americans . The organization around

3605-555: The Croatian People", and the "Legal Provision on Citizenship". These decrees defined who was a Jew, and took away the citizenship rights of all non-Aryans, i.e. Jews and Roma. By the end of April 1941, months before the Nazis implemented similar measures in Germany and over a year after they were implemented in occupied Poland, the Ustaše required all Jews to wear insignia, typically a yellow Star of David . The Ustaše declared

3708-611: The Croatian people always despised the Jews and felt towards them natural revulsion". In May 1941, the Ustaše rounded up 165 Jewish youth in Zagreb, members of the Jewish sports club Makabi, and sent them to the Danica concentration camp . All but three were later killed by the Ustaše. The Ustaše sent most Jews to Ustaše and Nazi concentration camps—including the notorious, Ustaše-run Jasenovac concentration camp —where nearly 32,000, or 80% of

3811-521: The Germans and Italians increasingly exercised direct control over areas of interest. The Germans and Italians split the NDH into two zones of influence, one in the southwest controlled by the Italians and the other in the northeast controlled by the Germans. As a result, the NDH has been described as "an Italian-German quasi-protectorate". In September 1943, after Italian capitulation, the NDH re-occupied

3914-520: The HSS and Nazi Germany – denying German access to the Adriatic Sea . Ciano wrote back to Maček urging him to demand more territory and elaborate on his ideas. In 1939, Stojadinović was replaced by Dragiša Cvetković and Maček contacted him with the same request. The two reached a preliminary agreement, but Prince Paul vetoed the idea objecting to partition of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Maček then wrote back to Ciano explaining that he seeks status of

4017-526: The HSS in exile until his death in 1964. Juraj Krnjević took over as leader until his own death 1988, only a year before the HSS could resume its work within Croatia. With the advent of multi-party system in 1990, the HSS was reconstituted and on the 1990 election won several seats in the Croatian Parliament . They remained in opposition until the 2000 elections when they received three ministerial portfolios as part of their participation in

4120-618: The Italian police arrested Pavelić and several Ustaše emigrants in October 1934. Pavelić was imprisoned in Turin and released in March 1936. After he met with Eugen Dido Kvaternik, he stated that assassination was "the only language Serbs understand". While in prison, Pavelić was informed of the 1935 election in Yugoslavia, when the coalition led by Croat Vladko Maček won. He stated that his victory

4223-548: The Jews in the Independent State of Croatia, were killed. In October 1941, the Ustaše mayor of Zagreb ordered the demolition of the Zagreb Synagogue , which was completely demolished by April 1942. The Ustaše persecuted Jews who practiced Judaism but authorized Jewish converts to Catholicism to be recognized as Croatian citizens and be given honorary Aryan citizenship that allowed them to be reinstated at

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4326-466: The Jews, as the Ustaše permitted Jews who converted to Catholicism to be recognized as "honorary Croats", thus putatively exempt from persecution. In 1932, an editorial in the first issue of the Ustaše newspaper, signed by the Ustaše leader Ante Pavelić, proclaimed that violence and terror would be the main means for the Ustaše to attain their goals: The KNIFE, REVOLVER, MACHINE GUN and TIME BOMB; these are

4429-489: The Kingdom and the establishment of "peaceful peasant Republic of Croatia" . On 1923 and 1925 election, HRSS doubled the number of won votes, and has thus become the second largest party in the Parliament . In 1927, faced with a constant prosecution by the regime, HRSS was forced to soften its policy and change ts name into the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS), recognize the Vidovdan Constitution and form

4532-412: The Party requested for the Croatian part of the Kingdom to be based on self-determination. This brought them great public support which culminated in 1920 parliamentary election when HPSS won all 58 seats assigned to Croatia. In 1920, disgruntled with a bad position of Croats in the Kingdom, the party changed its name into Croatian Republican Peasant Party ( HRSS ) and started advocating secession from

4635-542: The Rhineland and with the rise of a quasi-fascist government in Yugoslavia under Milan Stojadinović , Mussolini abandoned support for the Ustaše from 1937 to 1939 and sought to improve relations with Yugoslavia, fearing that continued hostility towards Yugoslavia would result in Yugoslavia entering Germany's sphere of influence. The collapse of the quasi-fascist Stojadinović regime resulted in Italy restoring its support for

4738-585: The Ustaše banned contraception and tightened laws against blasphemy . The Ustaše accepted that Croats are part of the Dinaric race , but rejected the idea that Croats are primarily Slavic, claiming they primarily come from Germanic roots with the Goths . The Ustaše believed that a government must naturally be strong and authoritarian. The movement opposed parliamentary democracy for being "corrupt" and Marxism and Bolshevism for interfering in family life and

4841-413: The Ustaše for two aims. One, in order to weaken Yugoslavia, Little Entente , in order to ultimately regain some of its lost territories. The other, Hungary also wished to establish later in the future a strong alliance with the Independent State of Croatia and possibly enter a personal union. Nazi Germany initially didn't support an independent Croatia, nor did it support the Ustaše, with Hitler stressing

4944-467: The Ustaše went on to perpetrate the Holocaust and genocide against its Jewish , Serb and Roma populations, killing hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Jews, Roma, as well as Muslim and Croat political dissidents. The ideology of the movement was a blend of fascism , Roman Catholicism and Croatian ultranationalism . The Ustaše supported the creation of a Greater Croatia that would span

5047-624: The Ustaše were outlawed. The HSS was banned on 11 June 1941, in an attempt by the Ustaše to take their place as the primary representative of the Croatian peasantry. Vladko Maček was sent to the Jasenovac concentration camp, but later released to serve a house arrest sentence due to his popularity among the people. Maček was later again called upon by foreigners to take a stand and oppose the Pavelić government, but refused. In early 1941 Jews and Serbs were ordered to leave certain areas of Zagreb. In

5150-529: The Ustaše, whose aim was to create an independent Croatia in personal union with Italy. However, distrust of the Ustaše grew. Mussolini's son-in-law and Italian foreign minister Count Galeazzo Ciano noted in his diary that "The Duce is indignant with Pavelić, because he claims that the Croats are descendants of the Goths. This will have the effect of bringing them into the German orbit". Hungary strongly supported

5253-608: The Ustaše. The Ustaše introduced widespread measures, to which many Croats themselves fell victim. Jozo Tomasevich in his book War and Revolution in Yugoslavia: 1941–1945 , states that "never before in history had Croats been exposed to such legalized administrative, police and judicial brutality and abuse as during the Ustaša regime." Decrees enacted by the regime formed the basis that allowed it to get rid of all unwanted employees in state and local government and in state enterprises,

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5356-676: The Yugoslav government offered amnesty to those Ustaše abroad provided they promised to renounce violence; many of the "emigres" accepted the amnesty.  In the late 1930s, the Ustaše started to infiltrate the para-military organizations of the Croat Peasant Party, the Croatian Defense Force and the Peasant Civil Party. At the University of Zagreb, an Ustaše -linked student group become

5459-399: The aim of consolidation of Croatian lands within Yugoslavia – with a degree of autonomy. Then, after contacting several European governments and failing to get their support, he turned to Italian foreign minister Galeazzo Ciano in 1938. Through an intermediary, Maček explained the HSS wanted Croatia united as a federal unit of Yugoslavia encompassing territories of former Croatia–Slavonia to

5562-402: The basis of race. The Ustaše espoused Roman Catholicism and Islam as the religions of the Croats and condemned Orthodox Christianity , which was the main religion of the Serbs. Roman Catholicism was identified with Croatian nationalism, while Islam, which had a large following in Bosnia and Herzegovina , was praised by the Ustaše as the religion that "keeps true the blood of Croats." It

5665-480: The cabinet. The agreement angered Ustaše who launched a propaganda campaign against Maček and the HSS as traitors of Croatian interests while Italy switched its support back to Ustaše. The party's fortunes declined precipitously with the outbreak of World War II and the Axis invasion in April 1941. Some party members were divided among those who sympathized with the Croatian fascist Ustasha independence movement, and those whose left-leaning beliefs led them to join

5768-409: The central government used some 6,000 gendarmes and some 45,000 newly recruited members of regular "Domobranstvo" forces. Pavelić first met with Adolf Hitler on 6 June 1941. Mile Budak, then a minister in Pavelić's government, publicly proclaimed the violent racial policy of the state on 22 July 1941. Vjekoslav "Maks" Luburić , a chief of the secret police, started building concentration camps in

5871-411: The chief editor of newspaper Novosti from Zagreb and president of Jugoštampa , which was the beginning of the terrorist actions of Ustaše. Hranilović and Soldin were both arrested and executed for the murder. On 20 April 1929 Pavelić and others co-signed a declaration in Sofia, Bulgaria , with members of the Macedonian National Committee, asserting that they would pursue "their legal activities for

5974-403: The conservative Patriotic Coalition , and supported Tihomir Orešković as Prime Minister. In 2016 election , HSS won 5 seats as part of the liberal People's Coalition . The Croatian People's Peasant Party ( Hrvatska pučka seljačka stranka , HPSS) was established in 1904 by brothers Stjepan Radić and Antun Radić in the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia – itself a part of the Hungarian part of

6077-452: The creation of a new economic system that would be neither capitalist nor communist and which would emphasize the importance of the Roman Catholic Church and the patriarchial family as means to maintain social order and morality. (The name given by modern historians to this particular aspect of Ustaše ideology varies; " national Catholicism ", " political Catholicism " and "Catholic Croatism" have been proposed among others.) In power,

6180-419: The economy and for their materialism . The Ustaše considered competing political parties and elected parliaments to be harmful to its own interests. The Ustaše recognized both Roman Catholicism and Islam as national religions of the Croatian people but initially rejected Orthodox Christianity as being incompatible with their objectives. Although the Ustaše emphasized religious themes, it stressed that duty to

6283-415: The election law, it received 67 out of 373 seats in the parliament. Prompted by the failure of the government to secure the rule of law and public order, the HSS established the Croatian Peasant Defence  [ hr ] (HSZ) as a party paramilitary force in 1936. The force was established to protect Croats against paramilitaries supported or tolerated by the regime. The force was also designed as

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6386-803: The establishment of human and national rights, political freedom and complete independence for both Croatia and Macedonia". The Court for the Preservation of the State in Belgrade sentenced Pavelić and Perčec to death on 17 July 1929. The exiles started organizing support for their cause among the Croatian diaspora in Europe, as well as North and South America. In January 1932 they named their revolutionary organization " Ustaša" . The Ustaše carried out terrorist acts, to cause as much damage as possible to Yugoslavia. From their training camps in fascist Italy and Hungary, they planted time bombs on international trains bound for Yugoslavia, causing deaths and material damage. In November 1932 ten Ustaše, led by Andrija Artuković and supported by four local sympathizers, attacked

6489-403: The formation of a nationalist insurgency group. In October 1928, after the assassination of leading Croatian politician Stjepan Radić , ( Croatian Peasant Party President in the Yugoslav Assembly ) by radical Montenegrin politician Puniša Račić , a youth group named the Croat Youth Movement was founded by Branimir Jelić at the University of Zagreb . A year later Ante Pavelić was invited by

6592-527: The idols, these are bells that will announce the dawning and THE RESURRECTION OF THE INDEPENDENT STATE OF CROATIA. In 1933, the Ustaše presented "The Seventeen Principles" that formed the official ideology of the movement. The Principles stated the uniqueness of the Croatian nation, promoted collective rights over individual rights and declared that people who were not Croat by " blood " would be excluded from political life. Those considered "undesirables" were subjected to mass murder. These principles called for

6695-433: The importance of a "strong and united Yugoslavia". Nazi officials, including Hermann Göring , wanted Yugoslavia stable and officially neutral during the war so Germany could continue to securely gain Yugoslavia's raw material exports. The Nazis grew irritated with the Ustaše, among them Reichsfuhrer SS Heinrich Himmler , who was dissatisfied with the lack of full compliance by the NDH to the Nazis' agenda of extermination of

6798-680: The influx of groups like Vlachs who took up Orthodox Christianity and identified themselves as Serbs. Starčević admired Bosniaks because in his view they were Croats who had adopted Islam in order to preserve the economic and political autonomy of Bosnia and Croatia under the Ottoman occupation. The Ustaše used Starčević's theories to promote their own annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina to Croatia and recognized Croatia as having two major ethnocultural components: Catholics and Muslims. The Ustaše sought to represent Starčević as being connected to their views. Josip Frank seceded his extreme fraction from Starčević's Party of Rights and formed his own,

6901-415: The introduction of universal manhood suffrage , allowing the proportionally large peasant population (80% of Croatia-Slavonia at the time) to predominantly vote for the HPSS. Antun Radić died in 1919, leaving Stjepan as the sole leader of the HPSS. After the war, following the 1920 Croatian Peasant Rebellion , the HPSS became the only significant political party in Croatia, and the second largest party in

7004-463: The jobs from which they had previously been separated. After they stripped Jews of their citizenship rights, the Ustaše allowed some to apply for Aryan rights via bribes and/or through connections to prominent Ustaše. The whole process was highly arbitrary. Only 2% of Zagreb's Jews were granted Aryan rights, for example. Also, Aryan rights did not guarantee permanent protection from being sent to concentration camps or other persecution. Islam, which had

7107-436: The largest single student group by 1939. In February 1939 two returnees from detention, Mile Budak and Ivan Oršanić, became editors of the pro-Ustaše journal Hrvatski narod , known in English as The Croatian Nation . The Axis powers invaded Yugoslavia on 6 April 1941. Vladko Maček, the leader of the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS), which was the most influential party in Croatia at the time, rejected German offers to lead

7210-412: The leading advocate of Croatian independence. In 1927, he secretly contacted Benito Mussolini , dictator of Italy and founder of fascism , and presented his separatist ideas to him. Pavelić proposed an independent Greater Croatia that should cover the entire historical and ethnic area of the Croats. Historian Rory Yeomans claimed that as early as 1928, there were signs that Pavelić was considering

7313-407: The monarchy in return for his release and participation in a coalition government led by the People's Radical Party (NRS). The party was renamed the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS). Radić later admitted that he accepted the monarchy to protect his people. The HSS had little real influence in the coalition government which lasted until 1927. At the same time, the Radić's participation in the coalition

7416-405: The months after Independent State of Croatia has been established, most of Ustaše groups were not under centralized control: besides 4,500 regular Ustaše Corps troops, there was some 25,000–30,0000 "Wild Ustaše" (hrv. "divlje ustaše"), boosted by government-controlled press as "peasant Ustaše" "begging" to be sent to fight enemies of the regime. After mass crimes against Serb populace committed during

7519-518: The nation of Yugoslavia was formed in 1918. Šufflay was killed in Zagreb in 1931 by government supporters. The Ustaše accepted the 1935 thesis of Krunoslav Draganović , a Catholic priest who claimed that many Catholics in southern Herzegovina had been converted to Orthodox Christianity in the 16th and 17th centuries, in order to justify their own policy of forcible conversion of Orthodox Christians to Catholicism . The Ustaše were heavily influenced by Nazism and fascism. Its leader, Ante Pavelić, held

7622-446: The nation took precedence over religious custom. In power, the Ustaše banned the use of the term "Serbian Orthodox faith", requiring "Greek-Eastern faith" in its place. The Ustaše forcefully converted many Orthodox to Catholicism, murdered and expelled 85% of Orthodox priests, and plundered and burnt many Orthodox Christian churches. The Ustaše also persecuted Old Catholics who did not recognize papal infallibility . On 2 July 1942

7725-434: The new authorities. Meanwhile, Pavelić and several hundred Ustaše left their camps in Italy for Zagreb, where he declared a new government on 16 April 1941. He accorded himself the title of "Poglavnik"—a Croatian approximation to "Führer". The Independent State of Croatia was declared on Croatian "ethnic and historical territory", what is today Republic of Croatia (without Istria ), Bosnia and Herzegovina , Syrmia and

7828-544: The new government. On 10 April the most senior home-based Ustaše, Slavko Kvaternik , took control of the police in Zagreb and in a radio broadcast that day proclaimed the formation of the Independent State of Croatia ( Nezavisna Država Hrvatska , NDH). The name of the state was an attempt to capitalise on the Croat struggle for independence. Maček issued a statement that day, calling on all Croatians to cooperate with

7931-511: The new state. The Ustaše regime was militarily weak and failed to ever attain significant support among Croats. Therefore, terror was their means of controlling the "ethnically disparate" population. The Ustaše regime was initially backed by some parts of the Croat population that in the interwar period had felt oppressed by the Serb-led Yugoslavia, but their brutal policies quickly alienated many ordinary Croats and resulted in

8034-535: The newly established Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later renamed Yugoslavia). In 1920s, the HPSS policy was based on republicanism , opposition to further unification of the new state, demands for a neutral Croat peasant republic, and the advocation of national self-determination . To reinforce the republican message, the HPSS was formally renamed the Croatian Republican Peasant Party in 1920. Shortly following its accession to

8137-557: The opposition. In 2007 election , HSS formed yet another liberal coalition ( HSLS - PGS - ZDS - ZS ) and eventually ended up leading Ministries of Tourism and Agriculture in the Cabinet of Ivo Sanader II , and Ministries of Tourism and Regional Development in the Cabinet of Jadranka Kosor . In 2011 election , the party won only one seat in the Parliament as has moved to the opposition. In 2015 election HSS won one seat as part of

8240-463: The parliament escalated to the point where NRS deputy Puniša Račić shot several HSS parliament members killing two and wounding three including Radić on 20 June 1928. Radić suggested that the shootings were a result of a regime plan and that the HSS should abandon pacifism. Soon afterwards, Radić died of the wounds on 8 August. Following the assassinations, the Yugoslav state lost any legitimacy among Croats – who appeared united in demands for overhaul of

8343-546: The party gradually became a mass movement after 1918. This gave it the central role in the completion of Croatian national integration. The HPSS platform of antimilitarism and pacifism became very popular in the final year of the war, especially in Croatia-Slavonia, which was affected by widespread unrest associated with the Green Cadres . Furthermore, the restricted voting rights were expanded after 1918 by

8446-1029: The party won 7.2% of the popular vote and 10 out of 151 seats (nine domestic seats and one minority seat). Before the 2007 parliamentary elections , HSS announced a coalition with opposition parties Alliance of Primorje-Gorski Kotar and Croatian Social Liberal Party . The coalition received 6.5% of the popular vote and 8 out of 153 seats (six for HSS itself). After elections they became part of Ivo Sanader 's governing coalition and received two ministerial portfolios (regional development and tourism), vicepresident of government and vicepresident of Parliament. On 2011 parliamentary elections party score worst result in party's history receiving only one parliamentary seat and 3% of popular vote. Party convention 28 January 2012 elected Branko Hrg as new president. In 2014 Croatian Peasant Party in coalition with Croatian Democratic Union won one seat in European Parliament – Marijana Petir . However, on 6 June 2017 Petir

8549-461: The popular vote and 1 out of 151 seats. Since 2006, the party politics shifted from center-right to center . HDSS supports the development of the agrarian sector, free enterprise, as well as the values of tolerance and dialogue. This article about a Croatian political party is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Croatian Peasant Party The Croatian Peasant Party ( Croatian : Hrvatska seljačka stranka , HSS )

8652-593: The position of Poglavnik , which was based on the similar positions of Duce held by Benito Mussolini and Führer held by Adolf Hitler. The Ustaše, like fascists, promoted a corporatist economy. Pavelić and the Ustaše were allowed sanctuary in Italy by Mussolini after being exiled from Yugoslavia. Pavelić had been in negotiations with Fascist Italy since 1927 that included advocating a territory-for-sovereignty swap in which he would tolerate Italy annexing its claimed territory in Dalmatia in exchange for Italy supporting

8755-563: The power of the Jews... In fact, as the Jews had foreseen, Yugoslavia became, in consequence of the corruption of official life in Serbia, a true Eldorado of Jewry." Once in power, the Ustaše immediately introduced a series of Nazi-style racial laws. On 30 April 1941, the Ustaše proclaimed the "Legal Decree on Racial Origins", the "Legal Decree on the Protection of Aryan Blood and the Honor of

8858-583: The republican movement of the HRSS as a potential recruitment pool. The HSS conversely, regardless of KPJ's formal federalist policy, saw the KPJ as unitarists and essentially a political endeavour to promote Serbian agenda. The HSS left the government in January 1927. Radić resumed pursuit of resolution of the Croatian question by advocating unification of Croatian lands including Slavonia and Dalmatia into

8961-445: The so-called Independent State of Croatia (NDH) in 1941, HSS was banned once again, with half of its members joining either Ustaše or Partisans , and part staying loyal to Maček who believed that the victory of Allies would bring liberal democracy into Croatia and that HSS would return to power. In May 1945, Maček left the country, while HSS split into two fractions which boycotted the 1945 election because of their opposition to

9064-564: The sovereignty of an independent Croatia. The Ustaše ideology has also been characterized as clerical fascism by several authors, who emphasize the importance the movement attached to Roman Catholicism. Mussolini's support of the Ustaše was based on pragmatic considerations, such as maximizing Italian influence in the Balkans and the Adriatic. After 1937, with the weakening of French influence in Europe following Germany's remilitarization of

9167-512: The state. HSS thus became the only major political party among Croats. Vladko Maček was elected to replace Radić almost immediately after his death. Under Maček, the HSS continued political opposition to the regime. The United Opposition  [ hr ] which included the HSS, stood in 1935 and 1938 Yugoslavian parliamentary election . In the latter, the United Opposition won the majority of votes, but due to operation of

9270-444: The statistic of the sum of votes given to HSS candidates on the coalition lists. The "Total seats" column includes sums of seats won by HSS in election constituencies plus representatives of ethnic minorities affiliated with HSS. The following is a list of presidential candidates who were endorsed by HSS. Usta%C5%A1e The Ustaše ( pronounced [ûstaʃe] ), also known by anglicised versions Ustasha or Ustashe ,

9373-452: The summer months of 1941, the regime decided to blame all the atrocities to the irregular Ustaše—thoroughly undisciplined and paid for the service only with the booty; authorities even sentenced to death and executed publicly in August and September 1941 many of them for unauthorized use of extreme violence against Serbs and Gypsies. To put an end to Wild Ustaše uncontrolled looting and killing,

9476-812: The summer of the same year. Ustaše activities in villages across the Dinaric Alps led the Italians and the Germans to express their disquiet. According to writer/historian Srđa Trifković , as early as 10 July 1941 Wehrmacht Gen. Edmund Glaise von Horstenau reported the following to the German High Command, the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW): Our troops have to be mute witnesses of such events; it does not reflect well on their otherwise high reputation. .. I am frequently told that German occupation troops would finally have to intervene against Ustaše crimes. This may happen eventually. Right now, with

9579-633: The term "ustat" was itself used in Herzegovina to denote the insurgents from the Herzegovinian rebellion of 1875. The full original name of the organization appeared in April 1931 as the Ustaša – Hrvatska revolucionarna organizacija or UHRO (Ustaša – Croatian Revolutionary Organization). In 1933 it was renamed the Ustaša – Hrvatski revolucionarni pokret (Ustaša – Croatian Revolutionary Movement),

9682-481: The whole territory which had been annexed by Italy according to Treaty of Rome. The decline in support for the Ustaše regime among ethnic Croats of those initially for the government began with the ceding of Dalmatia to Italy, considered as the heartland of the state and worsened with the internal lawlessness from Ustaše persecutions. The Army of the Independent State of Croatia was composed of enlistees who did not participate in Ustaše activities. The Ustaše Militia

9785-613: The winning Social Democratic Party of Croatia -led coalition. On elections 2000 HSS led center coalition alongside IDS-HNS-LS and Coalition won 25 seats in parliament with 17 seats for HSS (16 domestic and one minority seat). After the elections HSS formed coalition with SDP and had three ministers in government (education, agriculture and entrepreneurship), vice president of government and Speaker of Croatian Parliament , Zlatko Tomčić . On local elections 2001. HSS achieved its best results ever and won 8 out of 21 county prefects (župan) and lot of municipalities and towns and became party which

9888-637: Was a Croatian , fascist and ultranationalist organization active, as one organization, between 1929 and 1945, formally known as the Ustaša – Croatian Revolutionary Movement ( Croatian : Ustaša – Hrvatski revolucionarni pokret ). From its inception and before the Second World War , the organization engaged in a series of terrorist activities against the Kingdom of Yugoslavia , including collaborating with IMRO to assassinate King Alexander I of Yugoslavia in 1934. During World War II in Yugoslavia ,

9991-422: Was aided by the activity of Ustaše. By the mid-1930s, graffiti with the initials ŽAP meaning "Long live Ante Pavelić" ( Croatian : Živio Ante Pavelić ) had begun to appear on the streets of Zagreb. During the 1930s, a split developed between the "home" Ustaše members who stayed behind in Croatia and Bosnia to struggle against Yugoslavia and the "emigre" Ustaše who went abroad. The "emigre" Ustaše who had

10094-498: Was criticised in Croatia and in the HSS – although not sufficiently to threaten his leadership. A part of the membership split in protest, forming the Croatian Federalist Peasant Party. The Communist Party of Yugoslavia ( Komunistička partija Jugoslavije , KPJ) also criticised Radić for his cooperation with the regime. The KPJ had recently adopted the federalist approach to reform of the country and saw

10197-425: Was expelled from Croatian Peasant Party, which left the party without seats in European Parliament. The following is a summary of HSS's results in parliamentary elections for the Croatian parliament . The "Total votes" and "Percentage" columns include sums of votes won by pre-election coalitions HSS had been part of. After preferential votes were introduced into the electoral system, the total votes column includes

10300-531: Was founded as a nationalist organization that sought to create an independent Croatian state . It functioned as a terrorist organization before World War II. After the invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, the Ustaše came to power when they were appointed to rule a part of Axis -occupied Yugoslavia as the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), a quasi - protectorate puppet state established by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany . The Ustaše Militia ( Croatian : Ustaška vojnica ) became its military wing in

10403-437: Was organised in 1941 into five (later 15) 700-man battalions, two railway security battalions and the elite Black Legion and Poglavnik Bodyguard Battalion (later Brigade). They were predominantly recruited among uneducated population and working class. On 27 April 1941 a newly formed unit of the Ustaše army killed members of the largely Serbian community of Gudovac, near Bjelovar . Eventually all who opposed and/or threatened

10506-432: Was repeated multiple times in 1941 with groups of Jews. Simultaneously, the Ustaše initiated extensive antisemitic propaganda, with Ustaše papers writing that Croatians must "be more alert than any other ethnic group to protect their racial purity, ... We need to keep our blood clean of the Jews". They also wrote that Jews are synonymous with "treachery, cheating, greed, immorality and foreigness", and therefore "wide swaths of

10609-548: Was second in number of local elected officials. Today, the HSS considers itself among other center European political parties that advocate pro-agrarian policies and greater economic interventionism by the state. On social matters the HSS is largely conservative, supporting a Christian-based morality in public life. HSS is an associate member of the European People's Party (EPP). At the elections in November 2003 ,

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