Croatian Party of Rights
Encyclopedia
The Croatian Party of Rights is a right-wing political party
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...

 in Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...

. The "right(s)" in the party's name refer to the idea of Croatian national and ethnic rights that the party has vowed to protect since its founding in the 19th century. While the HSP has retained its old name, today it is a right-wing party with an ethnocentric platform.

Origins

The HSP traces its origins to 1861 when the Party of Rights (1861-1929) was originally founded.

Modern party

After the fall of communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...

 in the early 1990s, the Party of Rights was restored but it was overshadowed by Croatian Democratic Union
Croatian Democratic Union
The Croatian Democratic Union is the main center-right political party in Croatia. It is the biggest and strongest individual Croatian party since independence of Croatia. The Christian democratic HDZ governed Croatia from 1990 to 2000 and, in partial coalition, from 2003...

 (HDZ), a pro-independence party but one whose members included former communist cabinet members from Yugoslavia. The war years
Croatian War of Independence
The Croatian War of Independence was fought from 1991 to 1995 between forces loyal to the government of Croatia—which had declared independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia —and the Serb-controlled Yugoslav People's Army and local Serb forces, with the JNA ending its combat...

 were a turbulent period during which the party was involved in the creation of the so-called Croatian Defence Forces
Croatian Defence Forces
The Croatian Defence Forces was the military arm of the Croatian Party of Rights from 1991 to 1992 during the first stages of the Yugoslav wars....

 (Hrvatske Obrambene Snage, HOS), one of the first voluntary military units that aimed to secure Croatian independence from Yugoslavia. This HOS acronym indicatively resembles the Hrvatske Oružane Snage, an NDH formation from 1944. The HOS members wore black uniforms that resembled the World War II Black Legion
Crna Legija
The Black Legion was a militia unit active during World War II in Yugoslavia and later incorporated into the 5th division of the Croatian Armed Forces in December 1944...

, and attracted to their ranks many neo-fascists that boasted actual Ustaše
Ustaše
The Ustaša - Croatian Revolutionary Movement was a Croatian fascist anti-Yugoslav separatist movement. The ideology of the movement was a blend of fascism, Nazism, and Croatian nationalism. The Ustaše supported the creation of a Greater Croatia that would span to the River Drina and to the border...

 insignia.

The ruling HDZ cooperated with them until the fall of Vukovar
Vukovar
Vukovar is a city in eastern Croatia, and the biggest river port in Croatia located at the confluence of the Vuka river and the Danube. Vukovar is the center of the Vukovar-Syrmia County...

, after which the leaders of the HSP and HOS were imprisoned for "terrorist activities" and "obstruction of democratically elected government", but later released.

The party's first post-communist president, Ante Paradžik
Ante Paradžik
Ante Paradžik was Croatian right-wing politician, lawyer and rethorician. Paradžik was one of the restorers of Croatian Party of Rights, critic of Franjo Tuđman and his politics and advocate of democracy and human rights. He was victim of political assassination.-Youth:Paradžik was married with...

 was a political dissident during the former Yugoslavia when he was one of the student leaders of the Croatian Spring
Croatian Spring
The Croatian Spring was a political movement from the early 1970s that called for greater rights for Croatia which was then part of Yugoslavia as well as democratic and economic reforms.-History:...

, but he was killed during the war, allegedly by assassination. His successor and former party vice president Dobroslav Paraga
Dobroslav Paraga
Dobroslav Paraga is a Croatian right-wing politician.-Background:In his early days Dobroslav Paraga used to advocate secession of Croatia from Yugoslavia and that led him to be persecuted by the Communist authorities. Paraga used that persecution as an argument against Yugoslavia and its low human...

, who had also run afoul of the Yugoslav Communist authorities in the early 1980s, found himself in a power struggle with his deputy, Anto Đapić. Paraga and Đapić fought a legal battle for the right to use the party name, a dispute that Paraga eventually lost. Paraga later formed the Croatian Party of Rights 1861
Croatian Party of Rights 1861
Croatian Party of Rights 1861 is a right-wing political party in Croatia.It was founded in 1995 following the removal of Dobroslav Paraga from the leadership of Croatian Party of Rights and Paraga's unsuccessful attempts to revert this at courts...

 (HSP 1861) but by this time he was already politically marginalized.

The HSP is a self-identified neo-conservative party. It advocates ban on abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...

.

The long-time president of modern HSP was Anto Đapić. His political reputation was severely tarnished after the media found out that he cheated to obtain his first post-graduate degree in law at the University of Split, in collusion with Boris Kandare, a senior member of his party and professor at the Law Faculty. He was also publicly accused of faking injuries to obtain the status of a war veteran. Despite these revelations, Đapić's career as head of the HSP was unaffected. Even after the party was left by many and it had terrible results (losing 7 out of 8 seats from 2003) on the Croatian elections in 2007, he remained as head of the party (he temporarily resigned, but in less than few weeks he has withdrawn his resignation).

The modern HSP regards the NDH as a just expression of Croatian national interests, and the party often uses phrases and symbols similar to those used by the wartime fascist state. Party leadership, however, has attempted to distance the party from comparisons with the NDH-era in 2003 in an attempt to attract more moderate voters.

At the Croatian parliamentary election, 2003
Croatian parliamentary election, 2003
-External links:*...

, the party - in an alliance with Međimurje Party (Međimurska stranka), Zagorje Democratic Party (Zagorska demokratska stranka) and non-partisan Slaven Letica
Slaven Letica
Slaven Letica is a Croatian author, economist, commentator and politician.Native of Podgora, Letica graduated from the University of Zagreb Faculty of Economics....

 - won 6.4% of the popular vote and 8 out of 151 seats, all for the HSP and Slaven Letica.

In August 2005, the Croatian Democratic Republican Party , a right-wing political party established on October 21, 2000 by merger of three smaller right-wing parties, merged into the Croatian Party of Rights. The first president of HDRS was Joško Kovač.

In September 2007, prominent members Miroslav Rožić
Miroslav Rožic
Miroslav Rožić is a Croatian right-wing politician. As a former vice-president of Croatian Party of Rights , he served as a representative in Croatian Parliament between 2001 and 2007...

 and Tonči Tadić left the party. In November at the Croatian parliamentary election, 2007
Croatian parliamentary election, 2007
Parliamentary elections to the Croatian Parliament were held on 25 November 2007 in Croatia and on 24 November and 25 November 2007 abroad. The campaign officially started on 3 November...

, the party suffered a setback, as it won 3.5% of the popular vote and a single seat in Sabor. After the Croatian local elections, 2009
Croatian local elections, 2009
The 2009 Croatian local elections were held on 17 May, with the second round held on 31 May where necessary.The elections were held to elect members of city councils, mayors, members of county councils and county prefects. These were the first elections in which mayors and county prefects were...

, which weren't particularly successful for the party either, turmoil in the party leadership escalated when a faction led by former representatives Ruža Tomašić
Ruža Tomašić
Ruža Tomašić is a Croatian politician. She served as a Member of Parliament from 2003 to 2008 on the list of Croatian Party of Rights, and has since founded a splinter party, Croatian Party of Rights dr. Ante Starčević, of which she is currently the president...

 and Pero Kovačević formed a splinter "Croatian Party of Rights dr. Ante Starčević
Croatian Party of Rights dr. Ante Starčević
Croatian Party of Rights dr. Ante Starčević is a radical right-wing political party in Croatia. It was founded in 2009 by Ruža Tomašić and others as a splinter party from the Croatian Party of Rights. In 2010, they reported a membership of 12,500. , it is not represented in the Croatian...

".

At the party convention held on 7 November 2009, Đapić officially stepped down, allowing a new leader to be elected by party members. Daniel Srb
Daniel Srb
Daniel Srb is a Croatian right-wing politician and president of the Croatian Party of Rights.-Early life and education:Srb was born in Osijek on 23 November 1964....

 defeated two other candidates to become the new president of the party.

Croatian Party of Rights announced that during the Croatian parliamentary election in 2011 holders of their list in VII Electoral District (primary Lika
Lika
Lika is a mountainous region in central Croatia, roughly bound by the Velebit mountain from the southwest and the Plješevica mountain from the northeast. On the north-west end Lika is bounded by Ogulin-Plaški basin, and on the south-east by the Malovan pass...

 and Gorski Kotar
Gorski kotar
Gorski kotar is the mountainous region in Croatia between Karlovac and Rijeka. Together with Lika and the Ogulin-Plaški valley it forms Mountainous Croatia. Because 63% of its surface is forested it is popularly called the green lungs of Croatia or Croatian Switzerland...

) will be exclusively women.

See also

  • Croatian Party of Right (Bosnia and Herzegovina), the sister party in Bosnia and Herzegovina
    Bosnia and Herzegovina
    Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...


External links

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