An Analysis of the Development of the Croatian Social Liberal Party from 1989 to 2020

Hrvatsko socijalno-liberalna stranka prva je demokratska stranka u Hrvatskoj nastala 1989. godine. Stranka polazi od načela kako je pojedinac najveća vrijednost te da je slobodna samo ona zajednica u kojoj je slobodan i socijalno siguran svaki pojedinac. HSLS je stranka centra koja je svoj politički vrhunac dosegnula devedesetih i početkom 2000. godine pod vodstvom Dražena Budiše, najznačajnijeg i najdugovječnijeg predsjednika stranke. Na parlamentarnim izborima najbolji rezultat ostvarila je u koaliciji s SDP-om 2000. godine, kao i iste godine na predsjedničkim izborima gdje HSLS-ov kandidat Budiša ulazi u drugi krug i osvaja preko milijun glasova birača. Na europskim izborima HSLS je u koalicijama s manjim strankama podbacio i nije osvojio niti jedan mandat. Očita kriza stranke vidi se kroz unutarstranačke i koalicijske sukobe kroz koje stranka rapidno gubi potporu birača i postaje marginalna stranka u Hrvatskoj.The Croatian Social Liberal Party (CSLP) is the first democratic party in Croatia which was formed in 1989. The main principle of the party is that every individual is the greatest value and that only a public community is free in which every individual is free and socially secure. CSLP is the center party that reached its political peak in the 1990s and early 2000s under the leadership of Dražen Budiša, the party's most important and longest-serving president. In the parliamentary elections, he achieved the best result in the coalition with the SDP in 2000, as well as in the same year in the presidential elections, where the CSLP candidate Budiša entered the second round and won over a million votes. In the European elections, the CSLP failed in the coalitions with smaller parties and did not win a single seat. The obvious crisis of the party can be seen through intra-party and coalition conflicts through which the party is rapidly losing voter support and becoming a marginal party in Croatia