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
Leader	Radimir Čačić
Founder	Savka Dabčević-Kučar
Founded	13 October 1990 (1990-10-13)
Preceded by	Vesna Pusić
Headquarters	Zagreb
Ideology	Liberalism, Social liberalism
Political position	Centre-left
National affiliation	Kukuriku coalition
International affiliation	Liberal International (observer)
European affiliation	European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party
Official colours	Orange
Seats in Sabor	15 / 151
Website
www.hns.hr
Politics of Croatia Political parties Elections

The Croatian People's Party – Liberal Democrats (Croatian: Hrvatska narodna stranka – liberalni demokrati, HNS) is a center-left liberal party in Croatia.

HNS currently forms a parliamentary club with 15 members in Croatian Parliament, 14 elected in regular districts and one representative elected on a national minority list, therefore are the third largest political party in Croatia. The party is an observing member of the Liberal International and a full member of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party. HNS is currently led by Radimir Čačić.

Origins

The People's Party in Croatia was originally formed in the 19th century during the period of Croatian romantic nationalism. The Croatian People's Party describes the events of the Illyrian movement since 1835 as its history.

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 February 6, 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 party chair once again.

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 and 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
		(Coalition totals)		(HNS only)
August 1992	None	176,214	6.67	6 / 138
October 1995	HSS–IDS–HKDU–SBHS	441,390	18.26	2 / 127	–4
January 2000	HSS–IDS–LS–ASH	432,527	14.70	2 / 151	±0
November 2003	PGS–SBHS	198,781	8.00	10 / 151	+8
November 2007	None	168,440	6.80	7 / 153	–3
December 2011	SDP–IDS–HSU	958,312	40.00	14 / 151	+7

Presidential

The following is a list of presidential candidates who either ran as HNS members or were endorsed by HNS.

• 1992 – Savka Dabčević-Kučar (HNS) (Finished third, with 6.02% of votes in the first round)
• 2000 – Stjepan Mesić (HNS) (Finished first with 41.11% of votes in the first round and won the run-off with 56.01% of votes)
• 2005 – Stjepan Mesić (Independent) (Finished first with 48,92% of votes in the first round and won the run-off with 65,93% of votes)
• 2009–10 – Vesna Pusić (HNS) (Finished fifth with 7.25% of votes in the first round)

See also

• List of political parties in Croatia
• Liberalism
• Contributions to liberal theory
• Liberalism worldwide
• List of liberal parties
• Liberal democracy
• Liberalism in Croatia

External links

• Official website (Croatian)