CROATIAN PARTY OF RIGHT IN THE IMOTSKI REGION

Krajem 19. i početkom 20. stoljeća, pravaštvo je dalo novu svježinu hrvatskoj politici. U trenutku kad je politika oportunističke Narodne stranke prijetila razvojem Dalmacije u jugoslavenskom smjeru, pravaši su svojom radikalnom i beskompromisnom hrvatskom politikom preuzeli vodeću ulogu u očuvanju hrvatske nacionalne i državotvorne misli. Te je ideje najjasnije živio don Ivo Prodan koji je od 1906. postao predsjednikom ujedinjene Stranke prava. Po uzoru na svog vođu dr. Antu Starčevića, dalmatinski pravaši su od austro-ugarske vlasti zahtijevali ujedinjenje svih hrvatskih zemalja na temelju hrvatskog državnog prava. Za razliku od klasičnog Starčevićevog pravaštva, dalmatinski pravaši su prihvaćali rješenje hrvatskog pitanja u sklopu Monarhije, ali samo kao ravnopravnog i autonomnog faktora. Jedno od prvih područja koje je u Dalmaciji prihvatilo pravaštvo je Imotska krajina. Svoju odanost pravašima Imoćani su pokazivali na gotovo svim izborima, bili to općinski, kotarski ili pak izbori za Carevinsko vijeće. Prvak imotskog pravaštva profesor Josip Virgil Perić je postao jedan od najznačajnijih članova dalmatinske Stranke prava. Nošen glasovima svojih sumještana, Perić je godinama zastupao hrvatsku državotvornu misao u Carevinskom vijeću koje se sastajalo u glavnom gradu Monarhije. Kao izvor tog vremena poslužio nam je list Velebit. Iako je bio glasilo Hrvatske stranke, Velebit nam donosi vrijedne informacije za pravaštvo kako u Imotskom tako i u cijeloj Dalmaciji. Iz njega smo crpili podatke i o ključnim pitanjima za Dalmaciju iz 1908. godine. Nažalost, zbog zaustavljanja lista 30. rujna, Velebit ne donosi izvješća o rezultatima izbora za Dalmatinski sabor i situaciji nastaloj uslijed aneksije Bosne i Hercegovine. Unatoč tome, list Velebit je u brojim člancima za vrijeme svog izdavanja obradio navedene teme. Stanovišta izražena u listu možemo uzeti kao primjer službenog stava Hrvatske stranke.The Party of Rights is a Croatian party founded by Ante Starčević in 1861 in Zagreb. The main goal of the party was to unify all Croatian lands into one independent country on the ground of Croatian state right. The lands that would, according to Starčević, be a part of the unified Croatia are: Central Croatia, Slavonia, Dalmatia, Istria, Bosnia and Herzegovina and even Slovenian lands. The ideas of Ante Starčević soon begun to spread across all Croatian populated lands. In the late 1860s, one of the main figures of Croatian policy in Dalmatia, Mihovil Pavlinović, accepted the ideas of the Party of Rights. He was the first Dalmatian politician who expressed a more radical Croatian ideology, rejecting any form of South-Slavic associations. What differed him from Starčević, is that Pavlinović accepted the solution of the Croatian state question in the frame of the Austo-Hungarian Monarchy. The 1880s were the years in which the Party of Rights gained numerous followers in Dalmatia. Many people in Dalmatia started to support the ideas of the Party of Rights because they disliked the opportunistic policy of the Croatian People’s Party. The first real Party of Rights follower was Ivo Prodan who formed a small group of Party of Rights supporters in Zadar. After Prodan’s group, two more were formed in Split and in Dubrovnik led by the lawyer Ante Trumbić and the journalist Frano Supilo. Trumbić’s and Supilo’s groups soon merged into one because of the similarity of the ways they perceived the ideology of the Party of Rights. In 1894 Prodan’s and Trumić-Supilo’s groups united and formed the Party of Rights in Dalmatia. Some of the dissatisfied members of the Croatian People’s Party, led by Juraj Biankini, decided to join the young Party of Rights. One of the first places in Dalmatia that accepted the ideas of the Party of Rights was the Imotski region. The people of Imotski granted their vote on almost every election to the professor Josip Virgil Perić, who became one of the most famous members of the Dalmatian Party of Rights. He stayed on Trumbić’s side after the schism in the party in 1898, but after the Resolution of Rijeka in 1905, Perić decided to leave his colleges and join Prodan who was working on the reunion of the Party of Rights. He did not want to follow the ideas of the Resolution because some of them were in contrast with the ideas of the Party of Rights. The people of Imotski continued to support Perić and in that way they stayed loyal to the party. A great source for exploring the Dalmatian political history in the beginning of the 20th century is the Velebit newspaper. It was edited by Ante Trumbić in 1908 when he was no longer a member of the Party of Rights. Even though Velebit was the official newspaper of the Croatian Party, it brings numerous information concerning the Party of Rights and the political and economic circumstances in Dalmatia