The establishment of the Croatian government is fairly new, as the country only claimed independence in 1990. However, during these short transitional times, Croatia has exhibited its fair share of political drama. The Croatian democratic union (HDZ) is the main center right political party in Croatia, alongside its counterpart, the Social Democratic party(SDP). After the election of Andrej Plenkovic, the party was able to regain its majority seats in the Sabor(Croatian parliament), with 55 seats. The intent of this paper is to analyze the ups and downs of the party since its establishment in 1989.
Founded in 1989, the HDZ held its first convention on the 25th of February. As expected, this was a historical moment for Croatia as it had just liberated itself from Yugoslavia. During this time, President Franco Tudjman and his colleagues travelled around the EU, collecting financial donations from Croatian expatriates and diasporas. Initially, the HDZ faced a lot of criticism as it was viewed by some, mainly by the communists, as a party with dangerous intentions. Nonetheless, the party won a majority in the Croatian parliament and ended up making history, as it became the only country in eastern Europe where a single communist party was replaced by a single anti-communist party.
Following the party's control of the Croatian government, Tudjman became the undisputed president, leading the party until his death in 1999. Former President Franco Tudjman, founder of the party, is considered as one of the greatest political figures in Croatian history. Under his leadership, Croatia achieved independence(1991), became internationally recognized as an independent nation(1992), and even was able to retrieve all its pre-war territory(1998). During this period, public support for both Truman and HDZ was very high, as the party won both the 1992 and 1995 parliamentary elections. However, the HDZ was quite unpopular with the Serb minority and pro-Yugoslavia supporters, as he preferred independence and liberation of Croatia. This, initially, resulted in the party being viewed as an extremist and a chief contributor to the conflicts of nearby countries of Bosnia-Herzegovina and the republic of Serbia. Furthermore, the leader of the Social Democratic party, Marko Viselike, accused the HDZ of initiating a potential conflict with the Serbian and Yugoslavian People’s Army and being responsible for the Croatia’s unpreparedness for military defense. However, Tudjman was successful in rallying huge amount of public support for the reform and shifting some of the parties policies according to the circumstance.
On another note, the HDZ also faced a huge challenge in an economic transition, as the party had to transition from communism to capitalism. Notably, the first economic actions taken by Tudjman was the implementation of privatization. This was done when companies began publication and sale of shares to their employees. Furthermore, the ministry of privatization was established in 1995. Initially, this process was highly opposed by the public as it revealed a huge economic gap where unemployment increased dramatically. However, through time, the method of privatization contributed to the increase of the private sector and state ownership. In 1999, during the time of Tudjman’s death, the private sector reached its peak, with 60 percent of the country's GDP. However, this process was not smooth as the country enacted the right to formally register as owner of nationalized properties. This was due to the fact that multiple owners fabricated their own version of a ‘quasi-nationalization’, started by the communist regime after the WWII. As a result, many business magnates emerged through state-sponsored loans led by the HDZ. Ironically, this economic model was widely abused by the HDZ members as well as by other political parties. This process was later resolved with the establishment of the ministry of privatization in 1995.
Truman’s death highly affected the Croatian democratic party in the following parliamentary elections in 2000. The HDZ still remained the largest party in Croatia. However, it was defeated by a left-center coalition and the unusual large turnout of voters was considered, by many, as a referendum against the HDZ. This was realized at the subsequent parliamentary elections where the incumbent at the time, Mate Granic, finished third and as a result could not proceed to the second round voting. During this time, the international criminal court started criminalizing ex-Croatian/Yugoslavian army generals, who were behind the rally against the HDZ. This gave the party a distraction from the recent mass public opposition to the reforms of the party. However, the support from the public continued to decline, resulting in the party losing majority control for the first time in eight years in 2011.
The collapse of the first coalition of HDZ was realized when conflict arose between then deputy prime minister and leader of the HDZ Tomislav Karamarko and the previous Prime Minister Tihomir Oreskovic. As a consequence, the government was brought into disarray which led to the leader in stepping down in the face of unprecedented election. Soon after his resignation, the position was taken over by Andrej Plenkovic. Throughout the election, Plenkovic chose to avoid sensitive political and historical issues such as Communism and Yugoslavia’s political and cultural legacy and rather chose to focus on economic issues, which was welcomed by the Croatian society. Soon after re-gaining the support of the Croatian people, Plenkovic managed to marginalize the faction which remained loyal to Karamoko. Thus, the HDZ, thanks to Plenkovic, was able to reshape its image to a more centrist party, which enabled it to gain supporters from the largest leftist party in the country (Socialist democratic party.) During the election, the HDZ managed to gain back its majority, with 55 seats out of 71, which proved there was lack of confidence in the previous leader.
Fast forwarding today, the HDZ continues to be the largest political party in Croatia. The continuous actions of the current prime minister, Andrej Plenkovic, to integrate the country fully to the culture of the EU has gained wide public support. According to recent data from the Croatian website, the HDZ currently holds an astounding 56 percent lead going into the polls. However, the continuous opposition that exists from multiple parties could be a risk for the future to come.