Presidency of SR Croatia

The Presidency of the Socialist Republic of Croatia (Croatian: Predsjedništvo Socijalističke Republike Hrvatske), also erroneously known, based on its Russian-language title, as the Presidium (Russian: Президиум Социалистической Республики Хорватий, Prezidium Socialističeskoĵ Respubliki Horvatiĵ), despite the facts that Russian was never an official language in Yugoslavia, and that the Presidency was established well after Yugoslavia's break with the Soviet Union, was the collective head of state of the Socialist Republic of Croatia from 1974 to 1990.

The concept of a collective presidency was introduced nationally to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1971 with amendments to the constitution.[1] The new constitution of 1974 formalized the presidency with a member from each of the eight constituent republics. SR Croatia adopted a nearly identical system in its own new 1974 constitution, also including the President of the League of Communists of Croatia as an ex oficio member.[2] The constitution originally allowed for the president of the presidium to serve a maximum of two terms of four years.[2] Jakov Blažević served as president of the presidium for the maximum two terms before constitutional reforms in 1981 changed how the presidium functioned. The death of federal president-for-life Josip Broz Tito in 1980 brought into force constitutional articles which made the federal presidium have a rotating president, which was followed with constitutional amendments in 1981 which introduced the rotating practice into other offices.[3] SR Croatia introduced similar amendments into its own constitution which made the president of the presidium a rotating function on a one-year basis.

The presidium was controlled by the League of Communists for the vast majority of its history. After democratic reforms in 1989 and the subsequent democratic elections in 1990, a presidium led by Franjo Tuđman of the Croatian Democratic Union was voted in. The new Constitution of Croatia was adopted on 22 December 1990 which abolished the presidium.

List of presidiums

Name	Role	Party
Presidency 1974–1978
Jakov Blažević	President	SKH
Boris Bakrač Mirko Božić Čedo Grbić Josip Hrnčević Vjekoslav Ivančić Zvonimir Jurišić Milan Mišković	Members	SKH
Milka Planinc	Member ex officio as president of the League of Communists of Croatia	SKH
Presidency 1978–1982
Jakov Blažević	President	SKH
Pero Car Kazimir Jelovica Zvonimir Jurišić Milan Mišković Jakša Petrić Jelica Radojčević Jakov Sirotković	Members	SKH
Milka Planinc	Member ex officio as president of the League of Communists of Croatiaa	SKH
Presidency 1982–1986
Marijan Cvetković (1982-1983) Milutin Baltić (1983-1984) Jakša Petrić (1984-1985) Pero Car (1985)^1 Ema Derossi-Bjelajac (1985-1986)	President	SKH
Mirko Božić Marijan Cvetković (1983-1986) Tode Ćuruvija Ema Derossi-Bjelajac (1982-1985) Jakša Petrić (1982-1984, 1985-1986) Dragutin Plašć Milutin Baltić (1982-1983, 1984-1984) Pero Car (1982-1985)	Member	SKH
Jure Bilić (1982-1983) Josip Vrhovec (1983-1984) Mika Špiljak (1984-1986)	Member ex officio as president of the League of Communists of Croatia	SKH
Presidency 1986–1990
Ante Marković (1986-1988) Ivo Latin (1988-1990)	President	SKH
Ivo Latin (1988-1990) Tomislav Kovač Vlado Dobec Mirko Knežević Ante Marković (1988-1989)^2 Olga Miličić-Arslanagić Mato Grbac Mirko Sinobad	Members	SKH
Stanko Stojčević	Member ex officio as president of the League of Communists of Croatia	SKH
Presidency 1990
Franjo Tuđman	President	HDZ
Krešimir Balenović Dušan Bilandžić Dalibor Brozović Josip Manolić Antun Vrdoljak Milojko Vučković	Members	HDZ SKH-SDP HDZ HDZ HDZ independent

Notes

1. Died while holding the office.
2. Resigned to take the role of President of the Federal Executive Council.

See also

• Presidium of Yugoslavia
• League of Communists of Croatia

References

1. "Amandmani na Ustav SFRJ iz 1963. godine". Arhiv Jugoslavije. Retrieved 2016-02-08.
2. "Ustav Socijalističke Republike Hrvatske" (PDF). Retrieved 2016-02-08.
3. "Amandmani na Ustav iz 1974. godine". Arhiv Jugoslavije. Retrieved 2016-02-08.