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Croatian Christian Democratic Union (Croatian: Hrvatska kršćanska demokratska unija, HKDU) is a right wing political party in Croatia.
It was founded in 1992 after the merger of Croatian Democratic Party (HDS) and Croatian Christian Democratic Party (HKDS).
It was represented in Croatian Parliament between 1995 and 2003:[1]
Its long-time president was Anto Kovačević.
In 2007, the party held a new "founding assembly" (Croatian: osnivački sabor) and elected Željko Nuić as its new president,[2] who criticized the former presidents Petar Ćurlin, Marko Veselica and Anto Kovačević as failures of the party.[3]
HKDU has observer status in the European People's Party.[4]
The Croatian Democratic Party (Croatian: Hrvatska demokratska stranka, HDS) was a right-wing party that was among the first to be founded after the arrival of multi-party democracy in Croatia. Led by veteran Communist-era dissident Marko Veselica, HDS was supposed to be the focal point for the most radical Croatian nationalists. This spot was, however, taken by Franjo Tuđman and his Croatian Democratic Union. HDS instead joined moderate Coalition of People's Accord and, consequently, fared badly in the Croatian parliamentary election, 1990.
After, HDS tried to live to its radical reputation by harsh criticism of Tuđman's government for the perceived appeasement of Serbia and Yugoslav People's Army during the opening stages of war. When the war escalated in Summer of 1991, HDS was nevertheless admitted into the "National Unity" government of Franjo Gregurić.
In less than a year, HDS lost reputation of most radical Croatian party to Croatian Party of Rights. This reflected on 1992 presidential and parliamentary elections, which led HDS to merge with Croatian Christian Democratic Party into a new party called Croatian Christian Democratic Union.