The Croats, a native population of Iran, settled along Dalmatia, called by the Byzantine emperor Heraclius, in the first half of the 7th century. and soon they converted to Christianity. Since then, the link with Rome has always meant national identification with respect to Muslims and Orthodox Serbs. Recognized around the 9th century. the Frankish dominion, with the king Demetrio Zvonimiro, crowned in 1076, the Croatia was framed among the states dependent on the Holy See. Dead Zvonimiro (1089), Ladislao, king of Hungary, conquered Croatia pannonica, while the successor Colomanno in 1102 he obtained the Dalmatic one. According to localcollegeexplorer, from then on Slavonia and Croatia continental linked their destinies to Hungary, even though, from 1527, they were subjected to the crown of the Habsburgs ; Dalmatia (subject to Venice since 1409) and the Dubrovnik republic were annexed to Austria in 1797, while the military border (Vojna Krajina), i.e. the border region between the Habsburg and Ottoman dominions, populated mainly by Serbs from the regions subject to the Ottoman Empire, it maintained a privileged status directly dependent on Vienna until 1881 (when, after the occupation of Bosnia-Herzegovina by Austria in 1878, it was reincorporated into Croatia). The experience of the Illyrian Provinces under Napoleon (1809-13) favored the renewal national team that aimed at union with Slovenes and Serbs.
With the collapse of Austria in 1918, a united South Slavic kingdom was born in which the dominance of Belgrade was the cause of growing tensions, which worsened further after the coup of 1929. Only in 1939 was a compromise reached that ensured ample autonomy to Croatia. With the Nazi attack of 1941, an independent state was proclaimed (including Bosnia and Herzegovina) that the fascist regime of the Ustashas tried to make ethnically ‘pure’, carrying out ferocious persecutions against Serbs, Jews, Gypsies and Communists. The partisan movement, led by the Croatian Tito, allowed the redemption of the Croatia, which in 1946 became one of the 6 federated republics of Yugoslavia. After the repression of a new nationalist movement that developed in 1971, the 1974 Constitution extended the autonomy of the Croatia, but the resurgence of Serbian nationalism awakened separatist tendencies.
After the crisis of the communist regime and the return of multi-partyism, the elections of 1990 saw the victory of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) of F. Tudjiman, who relaunched nationalism, until the declaration of independence of Croatia in 1991, which opposed the Serbian minority, opposed to secession. The Yugoslav federal troops sent by President S. Milošević they intervened in Croatia and took control of about a third of the territory (including Slavonia and Krajina), where the Serbian Republic of Krajina was proclaimed. Following the signing of a ceasefire and the deployment of a UN interposition force (1992) between the Zagreb and Serbian troops of Croatia, the federal army withdrew. Croatia was recognized by the European Union and admitted to the UN. Tudjiman, confirmed as president of the Republic, began a progressive strengthening of authoritarian and centralizing tendencies, with a strong limitation of the freedom of the press and a substantial reduction of the powers of local administrations. The offensive against the secessionist minority forces led to the occupation of Western Slavonia and Krajina, the country ethnically homogeneous. The political structure was profoundly modified, after Tudjiman’s death in 1999, by both the parliamentary and presidential elections of 2000. For the first time since independence, the nationalist right was defeated by the opposition groups coalesced around the center-left reformist parties. I. Račan, president of the Social Democratic party, became prime minister with a decidedly pro-European oriented program of national reconciliation, the fight against corruption and the democratic reform of institutions based on the limitation of the prerogatives of the head of state in favor of the government and the Parliament; in the presidential elections S. Mesić was the winner, which immediately promoted close collaboration with the Hague International Tribunal for War Crimes in the former Yugoslavia, a sign of the new Croatia’s will to put an end to a decade of wars and nationalisms, and clearly showed that the main objective of the his presidency was entry into the European Union. The pro-European orientation was also at the basis of the profound renewal of the center-right forces initiated after the death of Tudjiman and carried out by I. Sanader, who in the 2003 elections led the HDZ to regain the parliamentary majority and took over from Račan in the office of prime minister. The 2005 presidential elections confirmed Mesić as president; in the 2007 legislative elections, Sanader’s party once again obtained the majority of votes. Sanader resigned in July 2009, he was succeeded by J. Kosor as prime minister. The 2010 presidential elections, on the other hand, saw the success of the center-left candidate I. Josipović, who was also in favor of Croatia’s entry into the EU. In the general elections held in December 2011, the Kukuriku coalition headed by the Social Democratic Party defeated the Croatian Democratic Union of the outgoing premier Kosor, obtaining a majority of 81 out of 151 deputies; led by the president of the Social Democratic Party Z. Milanović, the coalition had room for maneuver in the new Croatian Parliament in order not to need the support of other parties.
Joined NATO in 2008, at the referendum on accession to the European Union held in January 2012, the votes in favor were 66.3% against 33.1% against: Croatia is therefore the twenty-eighth country of the EU from the date of 1 July 2013. In the first European elections in the history of Croatia, held in April 2013, the center-right opposition party of the Croatian Democratic Union won with 33% of the votes, winning six seats, while the Party Social Democrat of Prime Minister Milanović received 31.7% of the votes and five seats; the other seat was won by a minor opposition formation.
The presidential consultations held in December 2014 saw the outgoing president Josipović affirmation of measure, who obtained 38.5% of the consensus against the 37.08% awarded by his main opponent, the conservative candidate and former foreign minister K Grabar-Kitarović, who received 50.4% of the votes in the ballot of the following January and took over from him, the first woman in the country to fill this role. The victory of the center-right in the presidential elections has decreased the consensus of the center-left coalition in government, as evidenced by the legislative consultations of November 2015, the first after the entry of the Croatia in the European Union, in which the Patriotic Coalition (Domoljubna koalicija) led by the conservative HDZ party of T. Karamarko obtained 59 seats out of 151, while the center-left block Croatia grows (Hrvatska Raste) of Prime Minister Milanović dropped to 56 seats and the centrist party Ponte (Most) established itself as the country’s third largest political force (19 seats). In the following December, after the coalition agreement between the HDZ and Most, President Grabar-Kitarović entrusted the task of forming the government to T. Orešković, who in January 2016 won the trust of the Parliament, bringing back the center-right in power after four years of opposition; but in June, following a crisis opened by a conflict within the ruling coalition, Parliament voted no confidence in the government led by Orešković and fixed its dissolution as of July 15, calling early elections for the month of September. The consultations recorded the victory of the HDZ, which obtained 61 seats out of the 151 total, while the Social Democrats of Milanović left 54 and the Most party 13; the following month, the president of HDZ A. Plenković took over from Orešković in the office of premier, who in the European elections held in May saw a clear confirmation of the consensus obtaining 22.7% of the votes against 18.7% won by the Social Democrats. A clear affirmation of the center-left forces was also recorded in the first round of the presidential elections in December 2019: the former premier Milanović obtained the 29th, 5% of the votes against the 26.6% of the outgoing president Grabar-Kitarović, who he defeated in the ballot held in January 2020, receiving 52.7% of the preferences and taking over from him. In May 2020, on the proposal of Prime Minister Plenković, the Parliament dissolved; the political consultations held in July 2020 confirmed the prime minister’s HDZ in power, which won 66 out of 151 seats, while the center-left coalition, led by the Social Democrats, won 41 seats.
From 1 January to 30 June 2020 he held the presidency of the Council of the European Union.
