 = Politics of Croatia = 
 
 The politics of Croatia are defined by a parliamentary , representative democratic republic framework , where the Prime Minister of Croatia is the head of government in a multi @-@ party system . Executive power is exercised by the Government and the President of Croatia . Legislative power is vested in the Croatian Parliament ( Croatian : Sabor ) . The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature . The parliament adopted the current Constitution of Croatia on 22 December 1990 and decided to declare independence from Yugoslavia . The declaration of independence came into effect on 8 October 1991 . The constitution has since been amended several times . The first modern parties in the country developed in the middle of the 19th century , and their agenda and appeal changed , reflecting major social changes , such as the breakup of Austria @-@ Hungary , the Kingdom of Serbs , Croats and Slovenes , dictatorship and social upheavals in the kingdom , World War II , the establishment of Communist rule and the breakup of the SFR Yugoslavia . 
 The President of the Republic ( Croatian : Predsjednik / ica Republike ) is the head of state and the commander in chief of the Croatian armed forces and is directly elected to serve a five @-@ year term . The government ( Croatian : Vlada ) , the main executive power of Croatia , is headed by the prime minister , who has four deputy prime ministers , three of whom also serve as government ministers . Seventeen ministers are in charge of particular activities . The executive branch is responsible for proposing legislation and a budget , executing the laws , and guiding the foreign and internal policies . The parliament is a unicameral legislative body . The number of Sabor representatives ranges from 100 to 160 ; they are elected by popular vote to serve four @-@ year terms . The powers of the legislature include enactment and amendment of the constitution and laws ; adoption of the government budget , declarations of war and peace , defining national boundaries , calling referenda and elections , appointments and relief of officers , supervising the Government of Croatia and other holders of public powers responsible to the Sabor , and granting of amnesties . The Croatian constitution and legislation provides for regular presidential and parliamentary elections , and the election of county prefects and assemblies , and city and municipal mayors and councils . 
 Croatia has a three @-@ tiered , independent judicial system governed by the Constitution of Croatia and national legislation enacted by the Sabor . The Supreme Court ( Croatian : Vrhovni sud ) is the highest court of appeal in Croatia . There are other specialised courts in Croatia — commercial courts and the Superior Commercial Court , misdemeanour courts , the Superior Misdemeanour ( criminal ) Court , the Administrative Court and the Croatian Constitutional Court ( Croatian : Ustavni sud ) . The State Attorney 's Office represents the state in legal proceedings . 
 
 = = Legal framework = = 
 
 Croatia is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic . Following the collapse of the ruling Communist League , Croatia adopted a new constitution in 1990 – which replaced the 1974 constitution adopted by the Socialist Republic of Croatia – and organised its first multi @-@ party elections . While the 1990 constitution remains in force , it has been amended four times since its adoption — in 1997 , 2000 , 2001 and 2010 . Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia on 8 October 1991 , which led to the breakup of Yugoslavia . Croatia 's status as a country was internationally recognised by the United Nations in 1992 . Under its 1990 constitution , Croatia operated a semi @-@ presidential system until 2000 when it switched to a parliamentary system . Government powers in Croatia are divided into legislative , executive and judiciary powers . The legal system of Croatia is civil law and , along with the institutional framework , is strongly influenced by the legal heritage of Austria @-@ Hungary . By the time EU accession negotiations were completed on 30 June 2010 , Croatian legislation was fully harmonised with the Community acquis . 
 
 = = Executive = = 
 
 The President of the Republic ( Croatian : Predsjednik / ica Republike ) is the head of state ; he or she is directly elected and serves a five @-@ year term . The president is the commander in chief of the armed forces , has the procedural duty of appointing the prime minister with the consent of the Sabor ( Parliament ) through a simple majority vote , and has some influence on foreign policy . The most recent presidential election was held on 10 January 2010 and was won by Ivo Josipović . He took the oath of office on 18 February 2010 . The constitution limits holders of the presidential office to a maximum of two terms and prevents the president from being a member of any political party . Consequently , the president @-@ elect withdraws from party membership before inauguration . President Josipović did so on 15 February 2010 . 
 The government ( Croatian : Vlada ) , the main executive power of Croatia , is headed by the prime minister who has four deputies , three of whom also serve as government ministers. there are seventeen other ministers who are appointed by the prime minister with the consent of the Sabor ; these are in charge of particular sectors of activity . As of 23 December 2011 , the Deputy Prime Ministers are Radimir Čačić , Neven Mimica , Branko Grčić , and Milanka Opačić . Government ministers are from the Social Democratic Party of Croatia ( SDP ) , and the Croatian People 's Party - Liberal Democrats ( HNS ) and Istrian Democratic Assembly ( IDS ) . The executive branch is responsible for proposing legislation and a budget , executing the laws , and guiding the country 's foreign and domestic policies . The government 's official residence is at Banski dvori . As of 23 December 2011 , the prime minister is Zoran Milanović . 
 
 = = Legislature = = 
 
 The Parliament of Croatia ( Croatian : Sabor ) is a unicameral legislative body . A second chamber , the Chamber of Counties ( Croatian : Županijski dom ) , was set up in 1993 pursuant to the 1990 Constitution . The Chamber of Counties was originally composed of three deputies from each of the twenty counties and the city of Zagreb . However , as it had no practical power over the Chamber of Representatives , it was abolished in 2001 and its powers were transferred to the county governments . The number of Sabor representatives can vary from 100 to 160 ; they are all elected by popular vote and serve four @-@ year terms . 140 members are elected in multi @-@ seat constituencies , up to six members are chosen by proportional representation to represent Croatians living abroad and five members represent ethnic and national communities or minorities . The two largest political parties in Croatia are the SDP and the Croatian Democratic Union ( HDZ ) . The last parliamentary election was held on 4 December 2011 in Croatia and on 3 and 4 December 2011 abroad . 
 The Sabor meets in public sessions in two periods ; the first from 15 January to 30 June , and the second from 15 September to 15 December . Extra sessions can be called by the President of the Republic , by the president of the parliament or by the government . The powers of the legislature include enactment and amendment of the constitution , enactment of laws , adoption of the state budget , declarations of war and peace , alteration of the country 's boundaries , calling and conducting referenda and elections , appointments and relief of office , supervising the work of the Government of Croatia and other holders of public powers responsible to the Sabor , and granting amnesty . Decisions are made based on a majority vote if more than half of the Chamber is present , except in cases of constitutional issues . 
 
 = = Elections = = 
 
 The Croatian constitution and legislation provides for regular elections for the office of the President of the Republic , parliamentary , county prefects , county assemblies , city and municipal mayors and city and municipal councils . The President of the Republic is elected to a five @-@ year term by a direct vote of all citizens of Croatia . A majority vote is required to win . A runoff election round is held in cases where no candidate secures the majority in the first round of voting . The presidential elections are regulated by the constitution and dedicated legislation ; the latter defines technical details , appeals and similar issues . 
 140 members of parliament are elected to a four @-@ year term in ten multi @-@ seat constituencies , which are defined on the basis of the existing county borders , with amendments to achieve a uniform number of eligible voters in each constituency to within 5 % . Citizens of Croatia living abroad are counted in an eleventh constituency ; however , its number of seats was not fixed for the last parliamentary election . It was instead calculated based on numbers of votes cast in the ten constituencies in Croatia and the votes cast in the eleventh constituency . In the 2007 parliamentary election the eleventh constituency elected five MPs . Constitutional changes first applied in the 2011 parliamentary election have abolished this scheme and permanently assigned three MPs to the eleventh constituency . Additionally , eight members of parliament are elected by voters belonging to twenty @-@ two recognised minorities in Croatia : the Serb minority elects three MPs , Hungarians and Italians elect one MP each , Czech and Slovak minorities elect one MP jointly , while all other minorities elect two more MPs to the parliament . The Standard D 'Hondt formula is applied to the vote , with a 5 % election threshold . The last parliamentary election , held in 2011 , elected 151 MPs . 
 The county prefects and city and municipal mayors are elected to four @-@ year terms by majority of votes cast within applicable local government units . A runoff election is held if no candidate achieves a majority in the first round of voting . Members of county , city , and municipal councils are elected to four @-@ year terms through proportional representation ; the entire local government unit forms a single constituency . The number of council members is defined by the councils themselves based on applicable legislation . Electoral committees are then tasked with determining whether the national minorities are represented in the council as required by the constitution . If the minorities are not represented , further members , who belong to the minorities and who have not been elected through the proportional representation system , are selected from electoral candidate lists and added to the council . 
 
 = = = Latest presidential election = = = 
 
 
 = = = Latest parliamentary election = = = 
 
 
 = = Judiciary = = 
 
 Croatia has a three @-@ tiered , independent judicial system governed by the constitution and national legislation enacted by the Sabor . The Supreme Court ( Croatian : Vrhovni sud ) is the highest court of appeal in Croatia ; its hearings are open and judgments are made publicly , except in cases where the privacy of the accused is to be protected . Judges are appointed by the National Judicial Council and judicial office is permanent until seventy years of age . The president of the Supreme Court is elected for a four @-@ year term by the Croatian Parliament at the proposal of the President of the Republic . As of 2011 , the president of the Supreme Court is Branko Hrvatin . The Supreme Court has civil and criminal departments . The lower two levels of the three @-@ tiered judiciary consist of county courts and municipal courts . There are fifteen county courts and sixty @-@ seven municipal courts in the country . 
 There are other specialised courts in Croatia ; commercial courts and the Superior Commercial Court , misdemeanour courts that try trivial offences such as traffic violations , the Superior Misdemeanour Court , the Administrative Court and the Croatian Constitutional Court ( Croatian : Ustavni sud ) . The Constitutional Court rules on matters regarding compliance of legislation with the constitution , repeals unconstitutional legislation , reports any breaches of provisions of the constitution to the government and the parliament , declares the speaker of the parliament acting president upon petition from the government in the event the country 's president becomes incapacitated , issues consent for commencement of criminal procedures against or arrest of the president , and hears appeals against decisions of the National Judicial Council . The court consists of thirteen judges elected by members of the parliament for an eight @-@ year term . The president of the Constitutional Court is elected by the court judges for a four @-@ year term . As of June 2012 , the president of the Constitutional Court is Jasna Omejec . The National Judicial Council ( Croatian : Državno Sudbeno Vijeće ) consists of eleven members , specifically seven judges , two university professors of law and two parliament members , nominated and elected by the Parliament for four @-@ year terms , and may serve no more than two terms . It appoints all judges and court presidents , except in case of the Supreme Court . As of January 2015 , the president of the National Judicial Council is Ranko Marijan , who is also a Supreme Court judge . 
 The State Attorney 's Office represents the state in legal procedures . As of August 2012 , Mladen Bajić is the General State Attorney , and there are twenty @-@ three deputies in the central office and lower @-@ ranking State Attorneys at fifteen county and thirty @-@ three municipal State Attorney 's Offices . The General State Attorney is appointed by the parliament . A special State Attorney 's Office dedicated to combatting corruption and organised crime , USKOK , was set up in late 2001 . 
 
 = = Local government = = 
 
 Croatia was first subdivided into counties ( Croatian : županija ) in the Middle Ages . The divisions changed over time to reflect losses of territory to Ottoman conquest and the subsequent recapture of the same territory , and changes to the political status of Dalmatia , Dubrovnik and Istria . The traditional division of the country into counties was abolished in the 1920s , when the Kingdom of Serbs , Croats and Slovenes and the subsequent Kingdom of Yugoslavia introduced oblasts and banovinas respectively . After 1945 under Communist rule , Croatia , as a constituent part of Yugoslavia , abolished these earlier divisions and introduced municipalities , subdividing Croatia into approximately one hundred municipalities . Counties , significantly altered in terms of territory relative to the pre @-@ 1920s subdivisions , were reintroduced in 1992 legislation . In 1918 , the Transleithanian part of Croatia was divided into eight counties with their seats in Bjelovar , Gospić , Ogulin , Požega , Vukovar , Varaždin , Osijek and Zagreb ; the 1992 legislation established fifteen counties in the same territory . Since the counties were re @-@ established in 1992 , Croatia is divided into twenty counties and the capital city of Zagreb , the latter having the authority and legal status of a county and a city at the same time . In some instances , the boundaries of the counties have been changed , with the latest revision taking place in 2006 . The counties subdivide into 127 cities and 429 municipalities . 
 The county prefects , city and municipal mayors are elected to four @-@ year terms by a majority of votes cast within applicable local government units . If no candidate achieves a majority in the first round , a runoff election is held . Members of county , city and municipal councils are elected to four @-@ year terms , through proportional representation with the entire local government unit as a single constituency . 
 The number of members of the councils is defined by the councils themselves , based on applicable legislation . Electoral committees are then tasked with determining whether the national ethnic minorities are represented on the council as required by the constitution . Further members who belong to the minorities may be added to the council in no candidate of that minority has been elected through the proportional representation system . Election silence , as in all other types of elections in Croatia , when campaigning is forbidden , is enforced the day before the election and continues until 19 : 00 hours on the election day when the polling stations close and exit polls may be announced . Six nationwide local elections have been held in Croatia since 1990 , the most recent being the 2009 local elections to elect county prefects and councils , and city and municipal councils and mayors . In 2009 , the HDZ @-@ led coalitions won a majority or plurality in fifteen county councils and thirteen county prefect elections . SDP @-@ led coalitions won a majority or plurality in five county councils , including the city of Zagreb council , and the remaining county council election was won by IDS @-@ SDP coalition . The SDP won four county prefect elections and the city of Zagreb mayoral election , the HSS won three county prefect elections , and the HNS and the HDSSB won a single county prefect election each . 
 
 = = History = = 
 
 
 = = = Within Austria @-@ Hungary = = = 
 
 Events of 1848 in Europe and the Austrian Empire brought dramatic changes to Croatian society and politics , provoking the Croatian national revival that strongly influenced and significantly shaped political and social events in Croatia . At the time , the Sabor and Ban Josip Jelačić advocated the severance of ties with the Kingdom of Hungary , emphasising links to other South Slavic lands within the empire . Several prominent Croatian political figures emerged , such as Ante Starčević , Eugen Kvaternik , Franjo Rački and Josip Juraj Strossmayer . A period of neo @-@ absolutism was followed by the Austro @-@ Hungarian Compromise of 1867 and the Croatian – Hungarian Settlement , which granted limited independence to Croatia . This was compounded by Croatian claims of uninterrupted statehood since the early Middle Ages as a basis for a modern state . Two political parties that evolved in the 1860s and contributed significantly to the sentiment were the Party of Rights , led by Starčević and Kvaternik , and the People 's Party , led by Janko Drašković , Ivan Kukuljević Sakcinski , Josip Juraj Strossmayer and Ivan Mažuranić . They were opposed by the National Constitutional Party , which was in power for most of the period between the 1860s and the 1918 , and advocated closer ties between Croatia and Hungary . 
 Other significant parties formed in the era were the Serb People 's Independent Party , which later formed the Croat @-@ Serb Coalition with the Party of Rights and other Croat and Serb parties . The Coalition ruled Croatia between 1903 and 1918 . The leaders of the Coalition were Frano Supilo and Svetozar Pribićević . The Croatian Peasant Party ( HSS ) , established in 1904 and led by Stjepan Radić , advocated Croatian autonomy but achieved only moderate gains by 1918 . In Dalmatia , the two major parties were the People 's Party – a branch of the People 's Party active in Croatia @-@ Slavonia – and the Autonomist Party , advocating maintaining autonomy of Dalmatia , opposite to the People 's Party demands for unification of Croatia @-@ Slavonia and Dalmatia . The Autonomist Party , most notably led by Antonio Bajamonti , was also linked to Italian irredentism . By 1900 , the Party of Rights had made considerable gains in Dalmatia . The Autonomists won the first three elections , but all elections since 1870 were won by the People 's Party . In the period 1861 – 1918 there were seventeen elections in the Kingdom of Croatia @-@ Slavonia and ten in the Kingdom of Dalmatia . 
 
 = = = First and Second Yugoslavia = = = 
 
 After the establishment of the Kingdom of Serbs , Croats and Slovenes , the HSS established itself as the most popular Croatian political party and was very popular despite efforts to ban it . The 1921 constitution defined the kingdom as a unitary state and abolished the historical administrative divisions , which effectively ended Croatian autonomy ; the constitution was opposed by HSS . The political situation deteriorated further as Stjepan Radić of the HSS was assassinated in the Yugoslav Parliament in 1928 , leading to the dictatorship of King Alexander in January 1929 . The HSS , now led by Vladko Maček , continued to advocate the federalisation of Yugoslavia , resulting in the Cvetković – Maček Agreement of August 1939 and the autonomous Banovina of Croatia . The Yugoslav government retained control of defence , internal security , foreign affairs , trade , and transport while other matters were left to the Croatian Sabor and a crown @-@ appointed Ban . This arrangement was soon made obsolete with the beginning of World War II , when the Independent State of Croatia , which banned all political opposition , was established . Since then , the HSS continues to operate abroad . 
 In the 1945 election , the Communists were unopposed because the other parties abstained . Once in power , the Communists introduced a single @-@ party political system , in which the Communist Party of Yugoslavia was the ruling party and the Communist Party of Croatia was its branch . In 1971 , the Croatian national movement , which sought greater civil rights and the decentralisation of the Yugoslav economy , culminated in the Croatian Spring , which was suppressed by the Yugoslav leadership . In January 1990 , the Communist Party fragmented along national lines ; the Croatian faction demanded a looser federation . 
 
 = = = Modern Croatia = = = 
 
 In 1989 , the government of the Socialist Republic of Croatia decided to tolerate political parties in response to growing demands to allow political activities outside the Communist party . The first political party founded in Croatia since the beginning of the Communist rule was the Croatian Social Liberal Party ( HSLS ) , established on 20 May 1989 , followed by the Croatian Democratic Union on 17 June 1989 . In December 1989 , Ivica Račan became the head of the reformed Communist party . At the same time , the party cancelled political trials , released political prisoners and endorsed a multi @-@ party political system . The Civil Organisations Act was formally amended to allow political parties on 11 January 1990 , legalising the parties that were already founded . 
 By the time of the first round of the first multi @-@ party elections , held on 22 April 1990 , there were 33 registered parties . The most relevant parties and coalitions were the League of Communists of Croatia – Party of Democratic Changes ( the renamed Communist party ) , the Croatian Democratic Union ( HDZ ) , and the Coalition of People 's Accord ( KNS ) , which included the HSLS led by Dražen Budiša , and the HSS , which resumed operating in Croatia in December 1989 . The runoff election was held on 6 May 1990 . The HDZ , led by Franjo Tuđman , won ahead of the reformed Communists and the KNS . The KNS , led by Savka Dabčević @-@ Kučar and Miko Tripalo – who had led the Croatian Spring – soon splintered into individual parties . The HDZ maintained a parliamentary majority until the 2000 parliamentary election , when it was defeated by the Social Democratic Party of Croatia ( SDP ) , led by Račan . Franjo Gregurić , of the HDZ , was appointed prime minister to head a national unity government in July 1991 as the Croatian War of Independence escalated in intensity . His appointment lasted until August 1992 . During his term , Croatia 's declaration of independence from Yugoslavia took effect on 8 October 1991 . The HDZ returned to power in the 2003 parliamentary election , while the SDP remained the largest opposition party . 
 Franjo Tuđman won the presidential elections in 1992 and 1997 . During his terms , the Constitution of Croatia , adopted in 1990 , provided for a semi @-@ presidential system . After Tuđman 's death in 1999 , the constitution was amended and much of the presidential powers were transferred to the parliament and the government . Stjepan Mesić won two consecutive terms in 2000 and 2005 on a Croatian People 's Party ( HNS ) ticket . Ivo Josipović , an SDP candidate , won the presidential elections in December 2009 and January 2010 . Kolinda Grabar @-@ Kitarović defeated Josipović in the January 2015 election run @-@ off , becoming the first female president of Croatia . 
 
 