Coalition of People's Accord

Coalition of People's Accord (Croatian: Koalicija narodnog sporazuma, KNS) was the bloc of mostly moderate nationalist and liberal parties formed on the eve of first multi-party elections in Croatia in 1990.

Coalition was initiated by ex-communists Savka Dabčević-Kučar and Miko Tripalo,^[1] two leaders of Croatian Spring who, unlike most other Croatian nationalist icons, declined to form their own party after the arrival of multi-party in Croatia. They feared that the large number of competing parties would ultimately lead to nationalist and anti-Communist votes being split, thus allowing the League of Communists of Croatia to remain in power. Instead they advocated that all those parties form broad coalition with two of them as nominal leaders.

Another stated reason for forming Coalition was desire for Croatia to have post-Communist government of many different parties instead of one, which was supposed to help develop the nascent democracy and prevent eventual return to one-party rule.

At first, it looked like Dabčević-Kučar's and Tripalo's plan was working. Coalition was indeed joined by large number of parties - centrist Croatian Social Liberal Party, right-wing Croatian Democratic Party and Croatian Christian Democratic Party, as well as the nominally left-wing Social Democrats of Croatia and number of local, youth and environmentalist groups and individual candidates. Another boost came in the form of open letter by some 200 top Croatian artists, scientists and intellectuals expressing support for Coalition.

However, it soon became apparent that Coalition would have to compete not only with the Communist government, but also with the more extremist Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ). The emerging nationalist ideas among the individual peoples of Yugoslavia at the time garnered popularity for such radical parties. This made Coalition look moderate, and hurt their popularity with the Croatian people.

Another obstacle for Coalition was runoff voting system, which favored two strongest parties or electoral blocs. In the first round of elections it became apparent that reformed-communists, now rebranded into Social Democratic Party of Croatia, had enough support to finish second in most of the constituencies. Most of the Coalition candidates finished third, although most of them refused to get out of the race before the second round.

In the end, only a small number of Coalition candidates was elected, 21 in all three houses of parliament. HDZ won majority in Croatian Parliament, while SDP became the main opposition party.^[1]

Soon Coalition began to disintegrate. HDS took radical views towards new HDZ government, while other Coalition parties adopted more centrist policies. Dabčević-Kučar and Tripalo formed their own Croatian People's Party in Autumn 1990.

References