Croatian Party of Rights
| Croatian Party of Rights Hrvatska stranka prava |
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|---|---|
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| Leader | Daniel Srb |
| Founded | 1861; re-founded in 1990[1] |
| Headquarters | Zagreb |
| Military wing | Croatian Defence Forces (HOS) (defunct) |
| Ideology | National conservatism, right-wing populism, formerly far right Croatian nationalism |
| Political position | Right wing |
| European affiliation | Croatian Party of Right (Bosnia and Herzegovina) |
| Official colours | Black |
| Seats in the Sabor |
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| Website | |
| hsp.hr | |
| Politics of Croatia Political parties Elections |
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The Croatian Party of Rights (Croatian: Hrvatska stranka prava, HSP) is a right-wing political party in Croatia. 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.
Contents |
[edit] History
[edit] Origins
The HSP traces its origins to 1861 when the Party of Rights (1861-1929) was originally founded.
[edit] Modern party
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After the fall of communism in the early 1990s, the Party of Rights was restored but it was overshadowed by Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), a pro-independence party but one whose members included former communist cabinet members from Yugoslavia. The war years were a turbulent period during which the party was involved in the creation of the so-called Croatian Defence Forces (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, and attracted to their ranks many neo-fascists that boasted actual Ustaše insignia.
The ruling HDZ cooperated with them until the fall of Vukovar, 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 was a political dissident during the former Yugoslavia when he was one of the student leaders of the Croatian Spring, but he was killed during the war, allegedly by assassination. His successor and former party vice president Dobroslav Paraga, 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 (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 and same-sex marriages.
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, the party - in an alliance with Međimurje Party (Međimurska stranka), Zagorje Democratic Party (Zagorska demokratska stranka) and non-partisan Slaven Letica - 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 (Croatian: Hrvatska demokratska republikanska stranka, HDRS), a right-wing political party established on October 21, 2000 by merger of three smaller right-wing parties,[2][3] merged into the Croatian Party of Rights.[4] The first president of HDRS was Joško Kovač.
In September 2007, prominent members Miroslav Rožić and Tonči Tadić left the party. In November at the Croatian parliamentary election, 2007, 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, which weren't particularly successful for the party either, turmoil in the party leadership escalated when a faction led by former representatives Ruža Tomašić and Pero Kovačević formed a splinter "Croatian Party of Rights dr. Ante Starčević".
At the party convention held on November 7, 2009, Đapić officially stepped down, allowing a new leader to be elected by party members. Daniel Srb defeated two other candidates to become the new president of the party.
[edit] See also
- Croatian Party of Right (Bosnia and Herzegovina), the sister party in Bosnia and Herzegovina
[edit] References
- ^ http://hidra.hr/stranke/s028361h.htm
- ^ "Stranački život" (in Croatian). Croatian Radiotelevision. 2001-01-27. http://vijesti.hrt.hr/arhiv/2001/01/27/STR.html. Retrieved 2008-05-25.
- ^ Osnovana Hrvatska demokratska republikanska stranka (Croatian)
- ^ http://www.vjesnik.hr/html/2005/09/02/ClanakTx.asp?r=unu&c=5 (Croatian)
[edit] External links
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