Croatian People's Party – Liberal Democrats

"Croatian People's Party" redirects here. For historic parties, see People's Party (Kingdom of Croatia) and Croatian People's Party (1919).
Croatian People's Party – Liberal Democrats
Hrvatska narodna stranka - Liberalni demokrati
President Ivan Vrdoljak
Secretary-General Srećko Ferenčak
Vice Presidents Anka Mrak Taritaš
Srđan Gjurković
Founder Savka Dabčević-Kučar
Founded 13 October 1990 (1990-10-13)
Headquarters Zagreb, Croatia
Membership  (2013) 45,005[1]
Ideology

Liberalism[2]

Social liberalism
Pro-Europeanism

Political position Centre to Centre-left
National affiliation People's Coalition
European affiliation Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party
International affiliation Liberal International (observer)
European Parliament group Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
Colors Orange
Sabor
9 / 151
European Parliament
1 / 11
County Prefects
2 / 21
Mayors
8 / 128
Website
Official website

The Croatian People's Party – Liberal Democrats (Croatian: Hrvatska narodna stranka – liberalni demokrati, HNS) is a liberal[2] political party in Croatia.

As of April 2015 HNS forms a parliamentary club with 10 members in the Croatian Parliament, making them the third largest party in Croatia in terms of parliament representation.[3] HNS is an observing member of the Liberal International and a full member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party. Since 2016 the party's leader is Ivan Vrdoljak, while Vesna Pusić is honorary president.[4]

Origins

The People's Party in Croatia was originally formed in 1841, during the period of Croatian romantic nationalism. The Croatian People's Party describes the events of the Illyrian movement since 1835 as its history.[5]

During Communism in the second Yugoslavia, the liberal leaders of the League of Communists of Croatia were Savka Dabčević-Kučar and Miko Tripalo, who participated in the Croatian Spring of 1971.

Modern party

The modern Croatian People's Party was formed in late 1990 by members of the Coalition of People's Accord (Croatian: Koalicija narodnog sporazuma) which had participated on the first multi-party election of 1990, led by Savka Dabčević-Kučar, Miko Tripalo, Dragutin Haramija and others.

The HNS remained a small opposition party. In the 1992 election they won 6.7% of the vote and attained 6 seats in the Croatian Parliament. In 1994, construction entrepreneur Radimir Čačić became party chairman. In the 1995 election they won 2 seats as part of an election alliance.

In the January 2000 election they formed a four-party coalition with HSS, LS and IDS, which together won 25 seats in the Parliament, two of whom were HNS representatives. As a result, the party participated in the 2000–2003 government of Ivica Račan through the minister of public works, construction and reconstruction Radimir Čačić. A few weeks later, the coalition's candidate and HNS member Stjepan Mesić was elected President of the Republic.

Also in 2000, HNS elected a new party chair, sociologist Vesna Pusić.

In the November 2003 elections, their alliance with the Alliance of Primorje-Gorski Kotar and the Slavonia-Baranja Croatian Party won 8% of the vote and 11 out of 151 seats, 10 of them HNS representatives. However, despite significantly improved results, the party moved to the opposition.

A second element of today's People's Party, the Party of Liberal Democrats or Libra, originated in time of the Račan government when in 2002 Dražen Budiša, the leader of the Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS), pulled out of the coalition. Ten members of parliament from Budiša's party, led by Jozo Radoš, refused to bring down the government and instead split from the HSLS, forming Libra, the Party of Liberal Democrats. That party won 3 seats in the 2003 election. On 6 February 2005, most of the 1,250 representatives of HNS on its seventh convention voted to merge with Libra as the Croatian People's Party – Liberal Democrats. The total number of parliamentary seats for the party increased to 13.

In the November 2007 elections the party ran on its own and got around 7% of the vote and 7 seats in the Croatian Sabor. It remained in the opposition. Since then, two representatives in Sabor, Dragutin Lesar and Zlatko Horvat, left the party.

In April 2008 Radimir Čačić was elected as party chair after defeating Dragutin Lesar, and then again in March 2012.

Election history

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 HNS had been part of. After preferential votes were added to the electoral system, the votes column also includes the statistic of the total number of such votes received by candidates of HNS on coalition lists. The "Total seats" column includes sums of seats won by HNS in election constituencies plus representatives of ethnic minorities affiliated with HNS.

Election In coalition with Votes won Percentage Seats won Change Government
(Coalition totals) (HNS only)
1992 (August) None 176,214 6.67
6 / 138
 Steady Opposition
1995 (October) HSS–IDS–HKDU–SBHS 441,390 18.26
2 / 127
 Decrease 4 Opposition
2000 (January) HSS–IDS–LS–ASH 432,527 14.70
2 / 151
 Steady Government
2003 (November) PGS–SBHS 198,781 8.00
10 / 151
 Increase 8 Opposition
2007 (November) None 168,440 6.80
7 / 153
 Decrease 3 Opposition
2011 (December) SDP–IDS–HSU 958,312 40.00
14 / 151
 Increase 7 Government
2015 (November) SDP–HSU–HL–AHSS–ZS 744,507 (84,002[6]) 32.31
9 / 151
 Decrease 5 Opposition
2016 (September) SDP–HSU–HSS 636,960[7] (84,581)[8] 33.47
9 / 151
 Steady Opposition

European Parliament

ElectionIn coalition withVotes won
(Coalition totals)		PercentageTotal seats won
(HNS only)		Change
April 2013 SDP–HSU 237,778 32,07%
0 / 12
 Steady
May 2014 SDP–HSU-IDS-SDSS 275,904 29,93%
1 / 11
 Increase 1

Presidential

The following is a list of presidential candidates who were endorsed by HNS in elections for President of Croatia.

Election Candidate First round result Second round result
Votes Rank Votes Result
1992 (Aug) Savka Dabčević-Kučar (HNS) 6.0% Third —
1997 (Jun) Vlado Gotovac (HSLS) 17.6% Third —
2000 (Jan–Feb) Stjepan Mesić (HNS) 41.1% First 56.0% Won
2005 (Jan) Stjepan Mesić (Ind.) 48.9% First 65.9% Won
2009–10 (Dec–Jan) Vesna Pusić (HNS) 7.3% Fifth —
2014–15 (Dec–Jan) Ivo Josipović (Ind.) 38.5% First 49.3% Runner-up

See also

References

  1. ↑ "HNS Vesne Pusić ima više članova od Milanovićeva SDP-a". Večernji list (in Croatian). 10 October 2013. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  2. 1 2 Parties and Elections in Europe: The database about parliamentary elections and political parties in Europe, by Wolfram Nordsieck
  3. ↑ http://www.sabor.hr/Default.aspx?sec=5160
  4. ↑ http://hns.hr/index.php/vijesti/1389-ivan-vrdoljak-izabran-za-novog-predsjednika-hns-a
  5. ↑ "Povijest - 19 stoljeće" [History - 19th century]. hns.hr (in Croatian). Croatian People's Party - Liberal Democrats. Retrieved 2015-01-04.
  6. ↑ Suzana Barilar (13 November 2015). "Preferencijalni glasovi". Jutarnji list (in Croatian).
  7. ↑ "Uživo-rezultati izbora", index.hr, 12.9.2016.
  8. ↑ "Posavec: Za HNS je glasalo 127 tisuća ljudi, zaradili smo 11 mandata". Faktograf. 16 September 2016.

External links

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