Nazor began his political career as the head of the State Anti-fascist Council for the National Liberation of Croatia (ZAVNOH), the provisional Croatian World War II deliberative assembly, moving on to head the first post-war Croatian National Parliament (Narodni Sabor). In that post, he was by law concurrently the first (non-monarchical) head of state of Croatia in general, and the de facto first head of state of the current Croatian republic. His position carried little real political power, which was instead invested in the office of the Prime Minister and (informally) with the Secretary of the Communist Party of Croatia.