“Šusteršič’s Party of the Right” – Genesis of the Trialist Alliance of the Slovenian Catholic National Party and the Dalmatian Party of the Right

Autor na temelju časopisa i drugih publicističkih izvora analizira stajališta dalmatinskih pravaša prema trijalističkim planovima dr. Ivana Šusteršiča i slovenskih katoličkih narodnjaka uoči Prvoga svjetskog rata. Dosadašnja rasprava u znanstvenim krugovima bila je usredotočena na Šusteršičev odnos prema prijestolonasljedniku Franji Ferdinandu i njegovim savjetnicima, a manje na to kako bi zapravo trebao izgledati rezultat savezništva slovenskih katoličkih narodnjaka i dalmatinskih pravaša, odnosno što je trebala donijeti reforma Austro-Ugarske Monarhije u trijalističkom duhu. Budući da je Šusteršičeva politika izgradnje trijalističkog savezništva propala već u vihoru Balkanskih ratova, za historiografiju je bilo zanimljivije isticanje pozicija političkih oponenata koji su kritizirali “Šusteršićeve pravaše”, a u manjoj se mjeri istraživala geneza samog savezništva.After the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908, there was a bonding of the Slovenian Catholic National Party, united in the Pan-Slovenian People’s Party, and the Dalmatian Party of the Right. The uncrowned “Duke of Kranj”, Ivan Šusteršič, became the moving spirit of the trialist movement which was supposed to unite the South Slavs in the Habsburg Monarchy. Šusteršič, who led the majority of the Slovenian and Croatian members in the Imperial Council, advocated the view that the dynastic interests absolutely coincided with the national interests of “Yugoslavs”, because the future of the dynasty was exactly where the future of South Slavic peoples was – on the Adriatic and in the Balkans. In order to establish its dominance in the Balkans, the Monarchy would first have, according to Šusteršič, to carry out the trialist programme. In his wish to extend its programme to Dalmatia, Šusteršič encountered the opposition group of Juraj Biankini, who condemned the “clericalization” of the Party of the Right led by Šusteršič’s ally Don Ivan Prodan.The distrust of the Slovenian “emissaries” who allegedly wanted to turn the Party of the Right into a “pendant of Slovenian clericalists” was also expressed by the members of the party in Šibenik led by Mate Drinković. Šusteršič’s main ally in Dalmatia was priest Ante Alfirević, who tried to merge Ante Starčević’s programme with the Christian-social idea propagated by the Slovenian Catholic National Party. In 1911, Šusteršič personally participated in the electoral campaign for the Imperial Council in Dalmatia, in which he supported Prodan’s Party of the Right. In 1912 in the assembly held in Ljubljana, the Slovenian-Croatian Party of the Right was formed, which gave the trialist idea a strong political support.The beginning of the Balkan Wars, however, and the split within the united Party of the Right forces prevented further development of the trialist alliance