Parliamentary elections to elect all 151 members of the Croatian Parliament were held on 23 November 2003. They were the fifth parliamentary elections to take place since the first multi-party elections in 1990. Voter turnout was 61.7%. The result was a victory for the opposition Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) which won a plurality of 66 seats, but fell short of the 76 needed to form a government. HDZ chairman Ivo Sanader was named the eighth Prime Minister of Croatia on 23 December 2003, after parliament passed a confidence motion in his government cabinet, with 88 MPs voting in favor, 29 against and 14 abstaining. The ruling coalition going into the elections, consisting of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Croatian People's Party (HNS), Croatian Peasant Party (HSS), Party of Liberal Democrats (Libra) and the Liberal Party (LS), did not contest the elections as a single bloc; the SDP ran with the Istrian Democratic Assembly (IDS), the Party of Liberal Democrats (Libra) and the Liberal Party, HNS ran with the Alliance of Primorje-Gorski Kotar (PGS) and the Slavonia-Baranja Croatian Party (SBHS), while HSS ran on its own.
Ivica Račan was a Croatian politician who served as Prime Minister of Croatia from 2000 to 2003, heading two centre-left coalition governments.
The Social Democratic Party of Croatia is a social democratic political party in Croatia. The SDP is anti-fascist, progressive, and strongly pro-European. The SDP was formed in 1990 as the successor of the League of Communists of Croatia, the Croatian branch of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, which had governed Croatia within the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia since World War II.
The Croatian Social Liberal Party is a conservative-liberal political party in Croatia. The HSLS was formed in 1989 as the first Croatian political party formed after the reintroduction of the multi-party system.
The Croatian People's Party – Liberal Democrats is a social-liberal political party in Croatia.
LIBRA - Party of Liberal Democrats was a short-lived Croatian social-liberal political party active between September 2002 and August 2005. During its existence the party ran in only one parliamentary election, in 2003, and won three seats in the 151-seat 5th Assembly of the Croatian Parliament.
This article gives an overview of liberalism in Croatia. Liberals became active since 1860 in Dalmatia and since 1904 in the rest of Croatia. It never became a major political party. It is limited to liberal parties with substantial support, mainly proved by having had a representation in parliament. The sign ⇒ denotes another party in that scheme. For inclusion in this scheme it isn't necessary so that parties labeled themselves as a liberal party.
Ivo Banac was a Croatian-American historian, a professor of European history at Yale University and a politician of the former Liberal Party in Croatia, known as the Great Bard of Croatian historiography. As of 2012, Banac was a consultant for the Bosnian Institute. He died after a serious illness at age 73.
Dražen Budiša is a Croatian politician who used to be a leading opposition figure in the 1990s and a two-time presidential candidate. As president of the Croatian Social Liberal Party through the 1990s he remains to date the only Leader of the Opposition not to have been from either the Croatian Democratic Union or the Social Democratic Party.
Zdravko Tomac was a Croatian politician.
Vladimir "Vlado" Gotovac was a Croatian poet and politician.
Zlatko Kramarić is a Croatian liberal politician from Osijek.
Jozo Radoš is a Croatian liberal politician currently serving as one out of 11 Croatian members of the European Parliament. He previously served as a Minister of Defence, member of the Croatian Parliament and as an observer in the European Parliament for Croatia.
Goran Granić is a former Croatian centre-left politician who was the deputy prime minister from 2000 to 2002.
The Eight Government of the Republic of Croatia was the second of two Croatian Government cabinets led by Prime Minister Ivica Račan. It was announced on 30 July 2002 and its term ended on 23 December 2003. Račan's second cabinet was formed after Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS) and Istrian Democratic Assembly (IDS) had decided to leave the ruling six-party coalition. The cabinet was succeeded by Cabinet of Ivo Sanader I, following the centre-right Croatian Democratic Union's return to power in the 2003 parliamentary elections.
In Croatia, the Opposition comprises all political parties represented in the Croatian Parliament that are not part of the Government which is supported by the parliamentary majority.
The following lists events that happened during 2000 in Croatia.
The Croatian Left has consisted of a broad range of individuals, groups, and political parties who seek egalitarian, economic, social and cultural rights in Croatia. Left-wing ideologies came to Croatia in the late 19th century during the Austria-Hungary regime. In 1894, the Social Democratic Party of Croatia and Slavonia was formed. It was the first workers party in Croatia at the time. In the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes the leftist movement grew but it was suppressed by the royal government. In 1920, the Communist Party of Yugoslavia was proclaimed illegal and its sympathizers were brutally persecuted after winning a large number of positions in the local elections. During the 1920s, Stjepan Radić and his Croatian Peasant Party led a centre-left agrarianism and anti-royalist policy. They were the leading Croatian political party at the time. After the assassination of Radić in 1929, the Croatian Peasant Party was taken over by Vlatko Maček who enforced a more conservative and nationalist rhetoric. During the Socialist Yugoslavia era, the League of Communists of Yugoslavia was the only legal party in the country. In 1990, political plurality was restored and a number of left-wing parties emerged with the most notable one being the Social Democratic Party of Croatia.
Andrea Feldman is a Croatian historian and liberal politician.
