Original scientific paper
PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS AND PARTY STRUGGLES IN THE VIROVITICA AND SLATINA DISTRICTS, 1919-1929.
Ivica Miškulin
; Croatian Institute of History, Department for the History of Slavonia, Syrmia and Baranya, Slavonski Brod, Croatia
Abstract
Political life in the Virovitica and Slatina districts in 1919-1929 reached its peak on the occasion of parliamentary elections. Indeed, it was parliamentary elections which showed the strength of particular political parties. The factor which had a decisive influence on the political orientation of the inhabitants of Virovitica and Slatina districts, during the parliamentary period in the inter-war Yugoslav state, was the ethnic (national) structure of that region. From the very outset of the period, the Croatian population gave its support to the Croat Peasant Party of Stjepan Radić. This fact shows that the Croatian population saw Radić and his political ideas as a genuine defender of Croat individuality within the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. The domination of Radić’s party is evident in all the parliamentary elections (1920, 1923, 1925, 1927), and all the other Croatian political parties remain in the shadows of these results. On the other hand, the Serb population in both districts placed its faith in the Democratic party, and following the parliamentary elections of 1925, in the Independent Democratic party of Svetozar Pribićević. A relatively large voter turnout revealed a high degree of interest on the part of the population in the actual political issues, which speaks to the success of pre-election agitation by the political parties.
Keywords
Virovitica; Slatina; political parties; elections; Croatia; Kingdom of Serbs; Croats and Slovenians
Hrčak ID:
103022
URI
Publication date:
31.10.2003.
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