Croatia celebrates its Statehood Day
Croatia celebrates Statehood Day today to commemorate the constitution of the first democratically elected multi-party parliament on May 30, 1990, which after decades of communist rule created the foundations of the modern parliament and reaffirmed its role in preserving Croatian statehood.
On May 30, the Assembly was filled with numerous representatives and guests who attended the constitution of the new Parliament, then still the Socialist Republic of Croatia.
The newly elected MPs elected Zharko Domljan as President of the Assembly, and Ivica Percan, Stjepan Sulimanac and Vladimir Sheks as Vice Presidents.
Stjepan Mesic was elected president of the Executive Council of the Parliament, and Franjo Tuđman was elected president of the Presidency of the Republic of Croatia.
In his speech, Tuđman then said that the constitution of the Parliament is "of crucial importance, the first step in the return of the Croatian people and their country to the European civilizational, political, cultural and economic tradition".
The first composition of the Assembly had 351 representatives and three councils: the Municipality, the Joint Labor Council and the Social-Political Council. HDZ had a majority, 207 out of 351 mandates, the Union of Communists of Croatia – Party for Democratic Change had 107, the Coalition of People's Agreement 21, the Serbian Democratic Party five, while 13 mandates went to independents and representatives of national minorities.
Part of the mandate, the first composition processed in special, military circumstances and made historic decisions on Croatian sovereignty and independence, on the termination of state-legal ties with SFRY and on the "Christmas Constitution".
Croatia celebrates its National Day on May 30 for the third year in a row. Three years ago, the Day of the Croatian Parliament was celebrated on that date and was a memorial day and a working day, while the National Day was celebrated on June 25 and was a public holiday and a non-working day.
The HDZ majority in the Parliament introduced the change in November 2019 when arranging the new holiday calendar, returning the National Day to May 30, as it was celebrated before 2001.
