The “Frankovci“ in Srijem County Before World War I

U ovom članku autor je na temelju postojeće literature, arhivskog gradiva i tiska pokušao rekonstruirati gdje su bila uporišta i tko su bili nositelji „frankovačke“ stranke u Srijemskoj županiji uoči Prvoga svjetskoga rata. Kao polazišna točka poslužili su naknadni izbori u Cerni, jednom od izbornih kotara ove županije, održani 1907, na kojima je „frankovačka“ stranka zabilježila svoj prvi izborni uspjeh u toj županiji, a kao zaključna točka posljednji redovni saborski izbori u banskoj Hrvatskoj, održani 1913. godine. Prateći izborne rezultate „frankovačke“ stranke u Srijemskoj županiji u ovom razdoblju, te stavljajući ih u kontekst etničke strukture pojedinih izbornih kotara i odnosa političkih snaga u njima, autor je pokušao odgovoriti na pitanje je li navedeni izborni uspjeh ove stranke iz 1907. godine bio prolaznog karaktera ili je značio trajnu utemeljenost „frankovačke“ stranke i njezinog, ekskluzivno hrvatskog nacionalno-političkog programa u Srijemskoj županiji.Taking as his point of departure the circumstance that before World War I the Pure Party of Rights (Starčević’s Croatian Party of Rights / Party of Rights) was the only political party in Croatia consistently representing the national-political programme in the spirit of the Pravaši, in this paper the author has attempted to give an answer to the question how much influence this party had in Srijem County during that period. This was a county that out of all the Croatian counties, primarily due to its ethnic structure, was the least open to that programme. Its ethnic structure, with the Croats making up only a quarter of the population and the Serbs being dominant in the majority of the administrative and electoral districts, greatly contributed to the strengthening of the unionist and Greater Serbian programme and caused the relatively late emergence of the “Frankovci” party and its programme in this area. For the same reasons, any stronger influence of this party remained confined to the western part of the County with a Croatian majority (administrative districts Vinkovci and Županja) and to a much lesser extent to islands with a Croatian majority within the mostly Serbian populated parts of the rest of the County. The greatest influence of the party was exerted in the territory of Vinkovci and to a lesser extent in Županja where in the above period a stronger influence had been achieved by Croatian parties that had abandoned the principles of the Party of Rights (Croatian Party of Rights) or had never even espoused these principles (the Croatian People’s Peasant Party)