The politics of Croatia are defined by a parliamentary, representative democratic republic framework, where the Prime Minister of Croatia is the head of government in a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the Government and the President of Croatia. Legislative power is vested in the Croatian Parliament. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. The parliament adopted the current Constitution of Croatia on 22 December 1990 and decided to declare independence from Yugoslavia on 25 May 1991. The Constitutional Decision on the Sovereignty and Independence of the Republic of Croatia came into effect on 8 October 1991. The constitution has since been amended several times. The first modern parties in the country developed in the middle of the 19th century, and their agenda and appeal changed, reflecting major social changes, such as the breakup of Austria-Hungary, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, dictatorship and social upheavals in the kingdom, World War II, the establishment of Communist rule and the breakup of the SFR Yugoslavia.
The president of Croatia, officially the president of the Republic of Croatia, is the head of state, commander-in-chief of the military and chief representative of the Republic of Croatia both within the country and abroad. The president is the holder of the highest office in Croatia. However, the president is not the head of the executive branch as Croatia has a parliamentary system in which the holder of the post of prime minister is the most powerful person within the country's constitutional framework and everyday politics.
The Croatian Parliament or the Sabor is the unicameral legislature of Croatia. Under the terms of the Croatian Constitution, the Sabor represents the people and is vested with legislative power. The Sabor is composed of 151 members elected to a four-year term on the basis of direct, universal and equal suffrage by secret ballot. Seats are allocated according to the Croatian Parliament electoral districts: 140 members of the parliament are elected in multi-seat constituencies. An additional three seats are reserved for the diaspora and Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina, while national minorities have eight places reserved in parliament. The Sabor is presided over by a Speaker, who is assisted by at least one deputy speaker.
The Croatian Democratic Union is a major conservative, centre-right political party in Croatia. Since 2016, it has been the ruling political party in Croatia under the incumbent Prime Minister Andrej Plenković. It is one of the two major contemporary political parties in Croatia, along with the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SDP). It is currently the largest party in the Sabor with 55 seats. The HDZ governed Croatia from 1990 before the country gained independence from Yugoslavia until 2000 and, in coalition with junior partners, from 2003 to 2011, and since 2016. HDZ is a member of the Centrist Democrat International, International Democracy Union, and the European People's Party, and sits in the European People's Party Group in the European Parliament. HDZ is the first political party in Croatia to be convicted of corruption.
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.
Jadranka Kosor is a Croatian politician and former journalist who served as Prime Minister of Croatia from 2009 to 2011, having taken office following the sudden resignation of her predecessor Ivo Sanader. Kosor was the first and so far only woman to become Prime Minister of Croatia since independence.
Zlatko Tomčić is a Croatian politician who served as President of the Croatian Peasant Party from 1994 to 2005, as Speaker of the Croatian Parliament from 2000 to 2003, as a representative in the Croatian Parliament, and as acting President of Croatia in February 2000.
Ivo Josipović is a Croatian academic, jurist, composer, and politician who served as President of Croatia from 2010 to 2015.
Parliamentary elections were held in Croatia on Sunday, 4 December 2011 to elect 151 members to the Croatian Parliament. They were the sixth parliamentary election in Croatia since independence.
Tomislav Karamarko is a Croatian politician who served as First Deputy Prime Minister of Croatia from January to June 2016. He served in the Cabinet of Jadranka Kosor as Minister of the Interior from 2008 to 2011.
Opinion polling for the 2011 Croatian parliamentary election started early after the previous election with polls on individual parties. As electoral coalitions were formed, coalition ratings started to be polled as well. The poll results below are listed by category and ordered in reverse chronological order. Major political events are indicated chronologically between individual polls. Concurrent polling was at the time also done for the 2012 Croatian European Union membership referendum.
Josip Leko is a Croatian politician who served as Speaker of the Croatian Parliament from 2012 to 2015.
Robert Podolnjak is a Croatian associate professor of constitutional law and politician who served as chairman of the Croatian Parliament's Committee on the Constitution, Standing Orders and Political System between January 2016 and June 2017. Podolnjak was elected to the Croatian Parliament at the 2015 and 2016 parliamentary elections as representative for III electoral district. He is member of the Bridge of Independent Lists party.
Peđa Grbin is a Croatian lawyer and politician who served as president of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) from 2020 to 2024. He was also Leader of the Opposition from 2020 to 2022 and from May to September 2024. He has represented the VIII electoral district in the Croatian Parliament since 2011.
