Croatian People's Party – Liberal Democrats Hrvatska narodna stranka – Liberalni demokrati | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Abbreviation | HNS, HNS-LD |
| President | Krunoslav Lukačić |
| Founder | Savka Dabčević-Kučar |
| Founded | 13 October 1990 (1990-10-13) |
| Headquarters | Zagreb |
| Membership(2022) | 31,793[1] |
| Ideology | Social liberalism[2] Pro-Europeanism[3] |
| Political position | Centre[3] Historical: Centre tocentre-left[4] |
| National affiliation | Rivers of Justice[a] (2010–2017) Croatian Democratic Union (coalition since 2024) |
| Regional affiliation | Liberal South East European Network |
| European affiliation | Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (affiliate member) |
| Colours | Orange |
| Sabor | 1 / 151 |
| European Parliament | 0 / 12 |
| County Prefects | 0 / 21 |
| Mayors | 0 / 128 |
| Website | |
| hns.hr | |
TheCroatian People's Party – Liberal Democrats (Croatian:Hrvatska narodna stranka – Liberalni demokrati orHNS) is asocial-liberal[2]political party inCroatia.
In the 11thSabor, since 2024, a single HNS representative forms a parliamentary club together with two independent representatives.[5] HNS is an affiliate member of theAlliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party.[6]
ThePeople's Party in Croatia was originally formed in 1841, during the period of Croatianromantic nationalism. The Croatian People's Party describes the events of theIllyrian movement since 1835 as its history.[7][clarification needed]. After 1861 the People's Party was known as the People's Liberal Party, its main splinter party was the Independent People's Party (1880–1903) which became more pro-autonomist, while the "old" People's Party developed into "party of theSettlement" having collaborated with the pro-HungarianUnionist Party (known as thePeople's Constitutional Party). The Progressive Party (1904–1906) and the Croatian People's Progressive Party (1906–1910) were also liberal parties in theKingdom of Croatia-Slavonia as an autonomous part of theAustro-Hungarian Empire.
In 1860, the national liberals formed in theDalmatia (Austrian part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire) theNational party known also as thePeople's Party in Dalmatia. The party developed into a conservative party around 1889 (the National Croatian Party).
In thefirst Yugoslavia (1918–1941), main liberal party was theIndependent Democratic Party composed by the Serbs from former Austro-Hungarian parts of the new state and Slovene centralist liberals.
DuringCommunism in thesecond Yugoslavia (theSocialist Republic of Croatia, SRH), the liberal leaders of theLeague of Communists of Croatia wereSavka Dabčević-Kučar andMiko Tripalo, who participated in theCroatian Spring of 1971.
The modern Croatian People's Party was formed in late 1990 by members of theCoalition of People's Accord (Croatian:Koalicija narodnog sporazuma) which had participated on thefirst multi-party election of 1990, led bySavka Dabčević-Kučar,Miko Tripalo,Dragutin Haramija and others.
The HNS remained a small opposition party. In the1992 election they won 6.7% of the vote and attained 6 seats in theCroatian Parliament. In 1994, construction entrepreneurRadimir Čačić became party chairman. In the1995 election they won 2 seats as part of an election alliance.
In theJanuary 2000 election, they formed a four-party coalition withHSS,LS andIDS, which together won 25 seats in theParliament, two of whom were HNS representatives. As a result, the party participated in the 2000–2003 government ofIvica Račan through the minister of public works, construction and reconstruction Radimir Čačić. A few weeks later, the coalition's candidate and HNS memberStjepan Mesić waselectedPresident of the Republic.
Also in 2000, HNS elected a new party chair,Zagreb University professor ofsociology of politicsVesna Pusić.
In theNovember 2003 elections, their alliance with theAlliance of Primorje-Gorski Kotar and theSlavonia-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, theParty of Liberal Democrats or Libra, originated in time of the Račan government when in 2002Dražen Budiša, the leader of theCroatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS), pulled out of the coalition. Ten members of parliament from Budiša's party, led byJozo 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 theCroatian People's Party – Liberal Democrats. The total number of parliamentary seats for the party increased to 13.
In theNovember 2007 elections, the party ran on its own and got around 7% of the vote and 7 seats in theCroatian Sabor. It remained in the opposition. In April 2008Radimir Čačić was elected as party chair after defeatingDragutin Lesar (MP). Lesar left the party, first acting as an independent MP, but then founded a splinter party,Croatian Laburists in March 2010. Zlatko Horvat MP left the party as well.
In the2011 elections, HNS participated in centre-leftKukuriku coalition spearheaded by SDP. After the coalition won, HNS entered thecabinet and held posts of foreign relations, commerce, culture etc. Čačić was reelected as a party chairman again in March 2012. After he was sentenced to a prison term due to a traffic accident in which two people died, he resigned from the cabinet and was forced to leave the party.Vesna Pusić was elected as party president in 2013. On 21 September 2014 about 200 members from HNSZagreb andVaraždin branches each left the party in order to formliberal andcentristPeople's Party - Reformists under Radimir Čačić's leadership.
HNS held the same alliance in the parliamentary elections of 2015 and 2016 as a part of SDP-ledPeople's coalition, switching to opposition. After the party chairmanIvan Vrdoljak and the party's general board decided to enter the government with centre-rightCroatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and supportAndrej Plenkovic's cabinet in theparliament (overriding the opposition of party's presidency), in June 2017, four MPs and the only MEP (Jozo Radoš) left the party to createleft of the centreCivic Liberal Alliance. This splinter also resulted in numerous party members and branch leaders leaving the party, either to join Civic Liberal Alliance or other parties. In October 2018, MP Marija Puh left the party fraction in the parliament to joinMilan Bandic's party, reducing the fraction further down to just four MPs.[8]
In the run-up to the2024 Croatian parliamentary election, HNS-LD decided to run together with HDZ, nominating a total of 4 candidates in 4 electoral units.[9]
| # | Name | In office |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Savka Dabčević-Kučar | 1990–1995 |
| 2 | Radimir Čačić | 1995–2000 |
| 3 | Vesna Pusić | 2000–2008 |
| 4 | Radimir Čačić | 2008–2013 |
| 5 | Vesna Pusić | 2013–2016 |
| 6 | Ivan Vrdoljak | 2016–2017 |
| — | Predrag Štromar | 2017 (Acting) |
| 7 | Ivan Vrdoljak | 2017–2020 |
| 8 | Predrag Štromar | 2020 |
| 9 | Stjepan Čuraj[10] | 2020–2022 |
| — | Mirko Korotaj | 2022–2024 (Acting) |
| 10 | Krunoslav Lukačić[11] | 2024–present |
The following is a summary of the party's results in legislative elections for theCroatian parliament. The "Total votes" and "Percentage" columns include sums of votes won by pre-election coalitions HNS had been part of. Afterpreferential 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 | None | 176,214 | 6.67 | 6 / 138 | New | Opposition |
| 1995 | HSS–IDS–HKDU–SBHS | 441,390 | 18.26 | 2 / 127 |  4 | Opposition |
| 2000 | HSS–IDS–LS–ASH | 432,527 | 14.70 | 2 / 151 |  0 | Government |
| 2003 | PGS–SBHS | 198,781 | 8.00 | 10 / 151 |  8 | Opposition |
| 2007 | None | 168,440 | 6.80 | 7 / 153 | 3 | Opposition |
| 2011 | SDP–IDS–HSU | 958,312 | 40.00 | 14 / 151 | 7 | Government |
| 2015 | SDP–HSU–HL–AHSS–ZS | 744,507 (84,002[12]) | 32.31 | 9 / 151 | 5 | Opposition |
| 2016 | SDP–HSU–HSS | 636,960[13] (84,581)[14] | 33.47 | 9 / 151 | 0 | Opposition (2016–17) |
| Government (2017–20) | ||||||
| 2020 | None | 21,725 | 1.30 | 1 / 151 | 8 | Government support |
| 2024 | HDZ–HSLS–HDS–HSU | 729,949 (3,974) | 34.44 | 1 / 151 | 0 | Government support |
| Election | List leader | Coalition | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | EP Group |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coalition | HNS | ||||||
| 2013 | Tonino Picula | SDP–HSU | 237,778 | 32.07 (#2) | 0 / 12 | New | – |
| 2014 | Neven Mimica | SDP–HSU-IDS-SDSS | 275,904 | 29.93 (#2) | 1 / 11 | 1 | ALDE |
| 2019 | Matija Posavec | None | 27,958 | 2.60 (#9) | 0 / 12 | 1 | – |
| 2024 | Valter Flego | Fair Play List 9[b] | 41,710 | 5.54 (#5) | 0 / 12 | 0 | |
The following is a list of presidential candidates who were endorsed by HNS in elections forPresident 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% | Lost | |
| 2019–20(Dec–Jan) | Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović (HDZ) | 26.7% | Runner-up | 47.3% | Lost | |
| 2024–25(Dec–Jan) | Dragan Primorac (Ind.) | 15.6% | Runner-up | 25.3% | Lost | |
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