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69-478: Its founders were members of the moderate faction within the Croatian Democratic Union . In 1993, their unofficial leader Josip Manolić , former protégé of President Franjo Tuđman , had been demoted and was becoming increasingly marginalized, while Gojko Šušak , the powerful defense minister and leader of the hardline nationalist faction, was winning Tuđman's favour. Following the rift between

138-545: A Croatian political party is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Croatian Democratic Union Recent referendums The Croatian Democratic Union ( Croatian : Hrvatska demokratska zajednica , lit.   ' Croatian Democratic Community ' , HDZ ) is a major conservative , centre-right political party in Croatia . Since 2016 , it has been the ruling political party in Croatia under

207-534: A betrayal of the founding principles of HDZ. From that point onward, HND tried to describe itself as the "genuine" HDZ. For a while, it looked that HDZ would ultimately lose parliamentary majority, but Tuđman, in the end, managed to keep number of the moderates in line, thus maintaining and later solidifying his grip on power. HND nevertheless managed to replace HDZ governments on local levels, most notably in Zagreb County , an event that would eventually lead to

276-568: A continuity with the medieval Croatian state and an identity associated with other Slavs - especially Southern Slavs . A Croatian revival started with the Illyrian movement ( c.  1835 onward), which founded the Matica hrvatska organisation in 1842 and promoted "Illyrian" language . Illyrianism spawned two political movements: the Party of Rights (founded in 1861 and named after

345-581: A federalized Yugoslav monarchy. After the foundation of Yugoslavia in 1918, a highly centralized state was established under the St. Vitus Day Constitution of 1921 in accordance with Serbian nationalist desires to ensure the unity of the Serbs; this caused resentment amongst Croats and other peoples in Yugoslavia. Dalmatian Croat and the principal World War I -era Yugoslavist leader Ante Trumbić denounced

414-473: A guard on St. Mark's Square to prevent civilians from entering. From 26 October 2011 USKOK expanded its investigation about "Slush Funds" on the HDZ as a legal entity. Previously, the investigation had included only Ivo Sanader , treasurers Milan Barišić and Branka Pavošević , general secretaries Branko Vukelić and Ivan Jarnjak and spokesman Ratko Maček . Party president Jadranka Kosor stated that this

483-423: A key part of Sanader's reformist course, opposition to his leadership within and outside the HDZ was on the rise. This opposition manifested itself at the 2005 local elections and the defection of Glavaš, who not only successfully challenged Sanader's authority but also managed to nominally deprive Sanader of his parliamentary majority. Despite this defeat, the first Sanader-led government was able to survive until

552-625: A major backlash among the Croatian public. As the opposition party, the HDZ supported this popular discontent and actively resisted the transfers of generals to the ICTY. This gradually changed as the HDZ and its new leader Ivo Sanader began to distance themselves from the more extreme rhetoric, becoming perceived as moderates. This tendency continued when the HSLS shifted rightwards, making Sanader's HDZ and HSLS appear as like-oriented parties. This process

621-538: A mass movement under the leadership of Stjepan Radić , leader of the Croatian People's Peasant Party after 1918 upon the creation of Yugoslavia . Radić opposed Yugoslav unification, as he feared the loss of Croats' national rights in a highly centralized stated dominated by the numerically larger Serbs . The assassination of Radić in 1928 provoked and angered Croatian nationalists with the centralized Yugoslav state, and from 1928 to 1939, Croatian nationalism

690-434: A replacement for Stipe Mesić who had held the position for ten years. But Hebrang finished third, failing to reach the second stage in which SDP candidate Ivo Josipović overwhelmingly defeated former SDP member Milan Bandić . However, many Croatian people were dissatisfied with the government and protested on the streets against the HDZ government, demanding that new elections be held as soon as possible. The police placed

759-638: A serious threat to Serbian interests, since he was demoted several times and in 1948 he was put under house arrest, and later killed. Croatian nationalism did not disappear but remained dormant until the late 1960s to early 1970s with the outbreak of the Croatian Spring movement calling for a decentralized Yugoslavia and greater autonomy for Croatia and the other republics from federal government control. These demands were effectively implemented by Tito's regime. Croatian communists started to indicate on Serbian dominance in commanding party posts, posts in

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828-709: Is a member of the Centrist Democrat International , International Democracy Union , and the European People's Party , and sits in the European People's Party Group in the European Parliament . HDZ is the first political party in Croatia to be convicted of corruption . The HDZ was founded on 17 June 1989 by Croatian dissidents led by Franjo Tuđman . It was officially registered on 25 January 1990. The HDZ held its first convention on 24–25 February 1990, when Franjo Tuđman

897-411: Is now Bosnia and Herzegovina , Slovenia ( Duchy of Carinthia , Carniola , Styria ) and parts of what is today Serbia ( Sanjak of Novi Pazar , Syrmia )—all people in this Greater Croatia whether Catholic , Muslim , or Orthodox were defined as Croats. During the 19th to mid-20th century Croatian nationalists competed with the increasingly Pan-Slavic Illyrian movement and Yugoslavists over

966-532: The 2016 parliamentary election , in which he campaigned on a pro-European and moderate agenda. Plenković was appointed prime minister in October. In terms of ideology, the HDZ statute, as well as its President Andrej Plenković and Secretary Gordan Jandroković , define the political position of the party as centre-right. However, there have significant shifts in HDZ's ideological and political positions, and there are both moderate and right-wing factions within

1035-643: The Banovina of Croatia - within Yugoslavia was accepted by the Yugoslav government in the Cvetković–Maček Agreement of August 1939. This agreement angered Serbian nationalists, who opposed it on the grounds that it weakened the unity of Serbdom in Yugoslavia; they asserted the importance of Serbian unity to Yugoslavia with the slogan "Strong Serbdom, Strong Yugoslavia". The agreement also angered Bosniaks (then known as "Yugoslav Muslims"), including

1104-615: The Croatian Party of Pensioners . With such a broad and diverse mandate, the Sanader-led government vigorously pursued policies that amounted to the implementation of the basic criteria for joining the European Union , such as the return of refugees to their homes, rebuilding houses damaged in the war, improving minority rights, cooperating with the ICTY, and continuing to consolidate the Croatian economy. Despite this,

1173-628: The European People's Party (EPP). On 11 March 2014, the HDZ and Ivo Sanader were found guilty of corruption. Following the collapse of the Tihomir Orešković government in June 2016, Tomislav Karamarko resigned as HDZ leader. The party elected former diplomat and member of the European Parliament Andrej Plenković as the new president, who won on a policy platform "devoid of extremes and populism". Plenković won

1242-674: The Yugoslav Muslim Organization (JMO), that denounced the agreement's partition of Bosnia and Herzegovina . A violent sectarian Croatian nationalism also developed prior to World War II within Ante Pavelić 's Ustaše movement (founded in 1929), which collaborated with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy in its government of the " Independent State of Croatia " (1941-1945) during World War II . Under post-war communist rule in Yugoslavia , dominated by

1311-590: The Zagreb Crisis . In the 1995 parliamentary elections, it became apparent that HND didn't attract many of HDZ voters, while those already opposed to Tuđman overwhelmingly preferred the established opposition parties. As a result, HND failed to enter the Sabor . This led Mesić to leave the party and join the Croatian People's Party , while Manolić began to try mending ties with HDZ. As a result, HND became marginalized and ceased to exist. This article about

1380-588: The 1960s he began to embrace nationalism. He soon earned the favour of the Croat diaspora, helping him to raise millions of dollars toward the goal of establishing an independent Croatia. Tuđman gathered MASPOK intellectuals and sympathisers from among diaspora Croats and founded the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) in 1989. In 1990, Tuđman's HDZ won the first democratic elections in the Socialist Republic of Croatia . In 1991, war erupted in Croatia and

1449-416: The 19th century, opposition by Croats to Magyarization and desire for independence from Austria-Hungary led to the rise of Croatian nationalism. The Illyrian movement sought to awaken Croatian national consciousness and a standardize regional literary traditions which existed in a various dialects on a single standard language. Once the Croatian lands were culturally unified, the movement aimed at unifying

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1518-626: The Communist Party or arrested. Such measures stopped the rise of nationalism in Yugoslavia, but Croatian nationalism continued to grow among Croat diaspora in South America, Australia, North America and Europe. Croatian political emigration was well-financed and often closely co-ordinated. Those groups were anti-communist since they originate from political emigrants who left Yugoslavia back in 1945. Croatian nationalism revived in both radical, independentist, and extremist forms in

1587-579: The Croatian extreme nationalist and fascist Ustaše movement took to governing the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) after the invasion of Yugoslavia by the Axis Powers and the creation of the NDH at the behest of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany as an Italo-German client state . The Ustaše committed mass genocide against Serbs, Jews and Roma, and persecuted political opponents, including

1656-595: The EU's Council of Ministers postponed Croatia's membership negotiations with the union on the grounds of its non-cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia over the case of indicted general Ante Gotovina . This setback brought an increase in Eurosceptic views among the Croatian public, which also affected support for the HDZ. Since accession to the EU was

1725-490: The European Union was soft Eurosceptic : there was no explicit opposition to the accession of Croatia to the EU , but the HDZ opposed some EU policies. Following the election of Ivo Sanader as the party president in 2000, the HDZ adopted a moderate centre-right position. Under Sanader, the party strongly pursued a pro-European policy, which continued under the leadership of Jadranka Kosor. Many observers considered

1794-494: The HDZ in those events is matter of controversy, even in Croatia, where some tend to view HDZ policy in the early stages of the conflict as extremist and a contributing factor in the escalation of violence while others (such as Marko Veselica 's Croatian Democratic Party ) see the HDZ as having appeased Serbia and the Yugoslav People's Army , therefore being responsible for Croatia's unpreparedness for defense. However,

1863-632: The HDZ won both the 1992 and 1995 parliamentary elections. As it strongly advocated Croatian independence, the HDZ was quite unpopular with the Serb minority and others who preferred to see Croatia remain inside the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia . This was one of the factors contributing to the creation of the Republic of Serbian Krajina and the subsequent armed conflict in neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina . The role of

1932-427: The HDZ, this process proved a useful distraction from dealing with the baggage of post-World War II communist nationalizations. It was the HDZ in 1992 which enacted into law the right of corporations (the vast majority of which were under state ownership) the right to finally formally register themselves as the owners of nationalized property, thus completing their version of a process of quasi-nationalization started by

2001-584: The St. Vitus Day Constitution for establishing a Serb hegemony in Yugoslavia - contrary to the interests of Croats and other peoples in Yugoslavia. Croatian nationalists opposed the centralized state, with moderate nationalists demanding an autonomous Croatia within Yugoslavia. Croatian nationalism became a mass movement in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia through Stjepan Radić 's Croatian Peasant Party . The demand by moderate Croatian nationalists for an autonomous Croatia -

2070-457: The army, police and secret police. However, main subject was the perceived subordinate status of standard Croatian , at that time regarded as a Western variety of Serbo-Croatian. In 1967 Croatian Writers' Association called for designation of Croatian as a distinct language both for educational and publishing purposes. Because of such demands Tito gave an order to purge reformers in 1971 and 1972. Some 1,600 Croatian communists were ejected from

2139-562: The coalition lists. The "Total seats" column includes sums of seats won by HDZ in election constituencies plus representatives of ethnic minorities affiliated with HDZ. The following is a list of presidential candidates endorsed by HDZ in elections for President of Croatia . The chart below shows a timeline of the Croatian Democratic Union presidents and the Prime Ministers of Croatia . The left bar shows all

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2208-510: The communist Yugoslav Partisans and Chetniks who fought against them. After the defeat of the Axis Powers in 1945 and the rise of communist Josip Broz Tito as leader of a new communist-led Yugoslavia, Croatian nationalism along with other nationalisms were suppressed by state authorities. During the communist era, some Croatian communists were labeled as Croatian nationalists, respectively Ivan Krajačić and Andrija Hebrang . Hebrang

2277-688: The communist regime after WWII, in different targeted areas for their gain. Property returned included possessions nationalized from the Catholic Church or widely known individuals such as Gavrilović, the owner of a major meat-producing factory in Petrinja, south of Zagreb. The 2000 parliamentary elections were held 3 January, weeks after Tuđman's death. The HDZ was defeated by a centre-left coalition of six opposition parties, led by Ivica Račan 's Social Democratic Party (SDP) and Dražen Budiša 's Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS). The election

2346-554: The concept of the Croatian state right ( pravaštvo ); led by Ante Starčević ), and Yugoslavism (the term means "South-Slav-ism") under Josip Juraj Strossmayer (1815-1905). Both Starčević and Strossmayer were largely limited in their influence to the Croatian intelligentsia . Advocacy in favour of Yugoslavism as a means to achieve the unification of Croatian lands in opposition to their division under Austria-Hungary began with Strossmayer advocating this as being achievable within

2415-523: The cultural unity of Croats. Modern Croatian nationalism first arose in the 19th century after Budapest exerted increasing pressure for Magyarization of Croats; the movement started to grow especially after the April Laws of 1848 which ignored Croatian autonomy within the Hungarian Kingdom . Croatian nationalism was based on two main ideas: a historical right to statehood based on

2484-493: The end of the legislature. The subsequent parliamentary election in late November 2007 saw the HDZ hard-pressed both by the SDP -led leftist coalition and by the extreme right-wing Croatian Party of Rights and Croatian Democratic Assembly of Slavonia and Baranja . During the electoral campaign, a vigorous and sometimes ruthless reaction from the party and Sanader himself, together with some capital errors from SDP, convinced part of

2553-495: The eve of the 1990 parliamentary elections , the ruling League of Communists of Croatia saw such tendencies within the HDZ as an opportunity to remain in power. At the beginning of democracy the communists called HDZ "the party of dangerous intentions". The HDZ won a majority in the Croatian Parliament, and Croatia (then part of Yugoslavia ) became one of the few socialist countries where Communist single party rule

2622-464: The far-right electorate to support the HDZ to prevent what they perceived as the heirs of the former communist party to return to power. The party won a majority of both seats and votes in the election, and the first session of the newly elected parliament was called for 11 January 2008. However, the SDP repeatedly refused to acknowledge defeat, claiming that they had the most votes if the diaspora ballot

2691-646: The following year, the Bosnian War broke out. The Croatian ruling elite helped the Bosnian HDZ to rise to power. The first leaders of the Bosnian HDZ opposed Tuđman's idea of division of Bosnia and Herzegovina between Croatia and Serbia; in response, Mate Boban was installed as leader of the HDZ. He founded the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia with the goal to merge it with Croatia at

2760-402: The identity of Croats. The founder of Yugoslavism, Croatian Bishop Josip Juraj Strossmayer advocated the unification of Croat lands into a Yugoslav monarchical federal state alongside other Yugoslavs . However, in spite of both Starčević's and Strossmayer's competing visions of identity, neither of their views had much influence beyond Croatia's intelligentsia. Croatian nationalism became

2829-426: The incumbent Prime Minister Andrej Plenković . 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 55 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. HDZ

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2898-482: The initial HDZ rule were tried and convicted for abuses, though in general the privatization process implemented by the HDZ remained unaltered. This period proved to be a low point for the HDZ; many thought the party could not recover. These people included Mate Granić, who, together with Vesna Škare-Ožbolt , left to form the centre-right Democratic Centre (DC). When the International Criminal Tribunal (ICTY) began to prosecute Croatian Army commanders, this provoked

2967-596: The late 1980s in response to the perceived threat of the Serbian nationalist agenda of Slobodan Milošević who sought a strongly centralized Yugoslavia. Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991 leading to the Croatian War from 1991 to 1995. The Croatian ruling elite helped the Bosnian HDZ to rise to power. The first leaders of the Bosnian HDZ opposed Tuđman's idea of division of Bosnia and Herzegovina between Croatia and Serbia; in response, Mate Boban

3036-547: The leaders of the Ustaše -led Independent State of Croatia . Its discourse had a strong emotional appeal, evoking "fears, desires, material and symbolic benefits" to win over those who sought Croatian sovereignty over communism and drawing upon Croatian nationalist traditions. It did not recognize the plurality of identities when addressing its citizens, viewing them as "Catholic Croats" with anti-Serbian sentiments regularly appearing during its assemblies. The HDZ's position regarding

3105-454: The leadership of Tomislav Karamarko from 2012 to 2016 as a return of nationalism in the party. After Andrej Plenković, viewed as a moderate, came to power in 2016, the party moved back to a centre-right position. The HDZ has been described as Christian-democratic and pro-European. The HDZ is responsible for implementing the "femicide" law, which criminalizes the killing of women, usually by men, because of their gender. This makes Croatia

3174-458: The local elections held in May 2009, the HDZ, against all expectations, managed to grow again, coming ahead of the SDP. However, HDZ support did weaken in the larger cities. On 1 July 2009, Ivo Sanader abruptly announced his resignation from politics and appointed Jadranka Kosor as his successor. She was confirmed as the new leader of the party on 3 July and was appointed by president Stipe Mesić as

3243-473: The part-Croat Tito (in power 1944-1980), Croatian nationalism became largely dormant, except for the Croatian Spring of 1967 to 1971, until the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991-1992 and the Croatian War of Independence of 1991 to 1995. In its more extreme form, Croatian nationalism is marked by the desire for the establishment of a Greater Croatian state, by the idealization of peasant and of patriarchal values, as well as by anti-Serb sentiment . In

3312-540: The party convention. Pašalić then left the HDZ to form the Croatian Bloc party. At the 2003 Croatian parliamentary election , the party won 33.9% of the popular vote and 66 out of 152 seats. Although it failed to win a clear majority in the Croatian Parliament , even with the help of the allied DC and HSLS, it formed a government with the nominally left-wing Independent Democratic Serb Party and

3381-542: The party with different interpretations of its basic positions. The HDZ leaders during the 1990s described their party as centrist and Christian-democratic , although in practice they pursued ultranationalistic policies. However, the party was at the time mostly characterized as further to the right than in recent years. At its beginning, the HDZ was an ethnically exclusive party that emphasized Croatian identity. Slogans such as "God and Croats" and "Croats get together" were common, which were incidentally also used by

3450-440: The policies of Tuđman and the HDZ shifted according to the circumstances. The HDZ also began to lead Croatia toward a political and economic transition from socialism to capitalism. Notably, HDZ governments implemented privatization in the country in a manner that critics consider sub-optimal, and at times possibly illegal, due to the selective nature of the privatizations (see Croatian privatization controversy ). According to

3519-486: The president of the HDZ, and the right bar shows the corresponding make-up of the Croatian government at that time. The blue (HDZ) and red ( SDP ) colours correspond to which party led the government. The last names of the respective prime ministers are shown, the Roman numeral stands for the cabinets . Croatian nationalism Croatian nationalism is nationalism that asserts the nationality of Croats and promotes

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3588-459: The previous Sanader government, but the HDZ suffered some internal turmoil as ministers Berislav Rončević and Damir Polančec left their posts after allegations of corruption. Along with several anti-corruption investigations, the party had to deal with an economic crisis. It began tackling the issue in April 2010 with a recovery program. In the next presidential elections, Croatia was looking for

3657-442: The prime minister-designate. Two days later the Sabor confirmed Kosor as the new prime minister , the first woman to hold the position. In the same resignation speech, Sanader also appointed Andrija Hebrang , who had formerly held the posts of defence minister and health minister , as HDZ candidate for the incoming presidential election , decreasing any speculation about his own ambitions for that position. The "Fimi media"

3726-697: The rest of the South Slavs under the resurrected Illyrian name. Illyrianists during the Revolutions of 1848 sought to achieve political autonomy of Croatia within a federalized Habsburg monarchy. Ante Starčević founded the Party of Rights in Croatia in 1861 that argued that legally, Croatia's right of statehood had never been abrogated by the Habsburg monarchy and thus Croatia was legally entitled to be an independent state. Starčević regarded Croatia to include not only present-day Croatia but also what

3795-489: The third country in Europe to have "femicide" as part of its law. 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 HDZ had been part of. After the preferential votes were included in the election system, the votes column also includes the sum of votes for HDZ's candidates on

3864-565: The two, Tuđman, in the Spring of 1994, tried to replace Manolić from the position of speaker. Manolić, however, preempted this by convincing a number of HDZ representatives, along with the opposition parties, to support him . Soon, he was joined by the speaker Stjepan Mesić and two of them announced a split from HDZ and the formation of a new party. They accused Tuđman of embracing authoritarianism, extreme nationalism and irredentist policies towards Bosnia and Herzegovina , which was, in their mind,

3933-496: The winner and thus replaced Kosor as leader of the opposition . Karamarko announced that he would reestablish connections between Croatia and the Croatian diaspora . Karamarko earlier announced that, after a process of the detudjmanization of the HDZ, he would return to the policies of Franjo Tuđman. He also stated that he could be "neither for Ante Pavelić nor Josip Broz Tito ", as both of them represented totalitarian systems. On 1 July 2013, HDZ received full member status of

4002-641: Was a corruption scandal which resulted from former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader stealing money from the state budget. USKOK has charged former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, Fimi media CEO Nevenka Jurak, former treasurer of the Croatian Democratic Union Mladen Barišić, former spokesperson of the Croatian Democratic Union Ratko Maček and former chief accountant Branka Pavošević with damaging the state budget by 70 million kuna or approximately 9 million euros. The HDZ

4071-567: Was accused by Serbian newspapers that he had influenced Tito to act against Serbian interests, in reality Tito and Hebrang were political rivals, since Hebrang advocated Croatian interests at the federal level and was one of the major Yugoslav Partisan leaders. Hebrang also advocated change of Croatian borders, since, according to him, Croatian boundaries were clipped by Milovan Đilas ' commission. He also argued against unfair exchange rates imposed on Croatia after 1945 and condemning show trials against people labeled as collaborationists. Hebrang wasn't

4140-406: Was completed in 2002 when Ivić Pašalić , leader of the HDZ hardliners and perceived to be associated with the worst excesses of Tuđman's era, challenged Sanader for the party leadership, accusing him of betraying Tuđman's nationalist legacy. At first it looked that Sanader would lose, but with the help of Branimir Glavaš and the tacit support of liberal sections of Croatian public opinion, he won at

4209-410: Was defined as pursuing either some form of autonomy or independence from Belgrade . In 1939, a compromise between the Yugoslav government and the autonomist Croatian Peasant Party led by Vladko Maček was made with the creation of an autonomous Croatia within Yugoslavia known called the Banovina of Croatia . Croatian nationalism reached a critical point in its development during World War II , when

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4278-569: Was elected its president. When the party was founded, the government of the Socialist Republic of Croatia had just introduced a multi-party system in Croatia and scheduled elections for the Croatian Parliament. The HDZ began as a nationalist party but also included former partisans and members of the Communist establishment, such as Josip Manolić and Josip Boljkovac . President Tuđman and other HDZ officials traveled abroad and gathered large financial contributions from Croatian expatriates. On

4347-456: Was faced with bad poll ratings and a large clean-up task that was still underway when Sanader left. The officials used the 2009 convention to elect Jadranka Kosor party president by acclamation. Andrija Hebrang accepted his designation as the presidential candidate only at the end of July, after he underwent a thorough medical examination , to exclude any remaining trace of a previous carcinoma . The Kosor government remained mostly unchanged from

4416-737: Was felt to be an overly long HDZ rule. Another major drawback was the Slovenian blocking of several chapters of Croatia's EU accession terms until border disputes between the two countries had been settled. Although this ultimately led to an indefinite suspension of the Croatian EU accession negotiations, it did not affect the government's popularity. In this case, as would be expected, considering Croatian staunch patriotism and national self-consciousness , all parties and nearly every Croatian citizen were absolutely adamant in refusing at any cost any concessions over matters of national interest . In

4485-485: Was installed as leader of the HDZ. He founded the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia with the goal to merge it with Croatia at the end of the war. Boban's project crashed in 1994 with the creation of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina . Beginning in the 1980s, the Croatian nationalist movement was led by former communist general and historian Franjo Tuđman . Tuđman was, at first, a prominent communist, but in

4554-467: Was not taken into account. The HDZ gained the support of the "yellow–green coalition" (HSS-HSLS) and of the HSU and national minorities representatives; Sanader formed a second government . Although that government had a larger majority than the former one, its existence remained troubled because of the worsening of the previously good economic situation and a weariness of Croatian public opinion about what

4623-408: Was one of the most critical moments of the HDZ. The HDZ became the first political party in Croatia to be charged with corruption. After the 2011 parliamentary elections , the HDZ become the opposition after 8 years in government. The HDZ won its smallest number of votes since its founding, 563,215. On 20 May 2012, HDZ held a presidential election in which, a day later, Tomislav Karamarko become

4692-513: Was replaced by anti-Communist single party rule. 30 May 1990, the day the HDZ formally took power, was celebrated as Statehood Day . A presidential election was held in 1992, and Tuđman, who would remain as undisputed party leader until his death in 1999, was elected president. The party governed Croatia throughout the 1990s and under its leadership, Croatia became independent (1991), was internationally recognized (1992), and consolidated all of its pre-war territory (by 1998). During that period,

4761-453: Was seen as a referendum on the HDZ with a poor economy, corruption and crony capitalism being major factors in their ouster. At the subsequent presidential election , HDZ candidate Mate Granić who was favored to win in the weeks prior to the parliamentary elections, finished third and therefore failed to enter the second round of voting, won by Stipe Mesić . In the period from 2000 and 2003, several businessmen who became tycoons under

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