Original scientific paper
Don Ivo Prodan in the Dalmatian Assembly (1901-1912/18)
Marjan Diklić
Abstract
Don Ivo Prodan (1852-1933) was the first and the most distinguished member of the Party of Right in Dalmatia about whom, because of his emphatic Croatian nationalist orientation seeking statehood, very little was written in Croatian historiography and then most frequently in a negativist nationalistic spirit. His parliamentary activity, which the article discusses in detail, was a constituent part of his overall political struggle for a solution of the Croatian national and statehood question on the basis of the natural and Croatian historical state right within the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. In the first introductory part the author discusses his attempts to be elected and Ivo Prodan's first election as representative in the Dalmatian assembly, the highest representative and autonomous body in the province. Special emphasis is given to his resolute struggle with autonomists and Serbian parties and the significance of his election victory for the Assembly in 1901 over the candidates of the Autonomist party amongst the electorate of the outer districts of the Zadar-Rab-Pag-Biograd region. This election region in northern Dalmatia became and remained Prodan's main stronghold in which he was elected a number of times as a representative to the Dalmatian assembly and Imperial Council. This reflects the huge influence of the Party of Right and, naturally, the degree of the development of national consciousness amongst the poor Croatian folk of this region. In the second part of the article the author discusses in detail Prodan's activities as representative from 1901 to 1907 while in the third part he writes about his repeated election to the regional Parliament in 1908. The fourth part describes Prodan's parliamentary activities in the Dalmatian assembly from 1908 to 1912/1918. The author goes into details to show Prodan's persistent struggle during both mandates in the Assembly for Croatian national, social, economic and state interests; particular emphasis is placed on his struggle for finding a solution to the Croatian state question which he persistently waged against the ruling Austrian state-administrative bureaucracy and against represenatives of Serbian and Autonomist parties and at times against certain representatives of Croatian political parties who were inclined to different solutions of the Croatian question. In the fifth and final section of the article the author in the form of a short summary lays out the essence of Prodan's activity as representative within the Dalmatian assembly in Zadar.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
12181
URI
Publication date:
19.10.2001.
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