from a strategic perspective, the establishment of the new puppet state was an obvious attempt by hitler to pacify the now conquered yugoslav peoples for the purpose of reducing the necessary occupation force to a minimum (in light of his plans for the upcoming operation barbarossa). vladko maček the head of the croatian peasant party, the strongest elected party in croatia at the time, refused an offer from germans to head the government but called on people to obey to and cooperate with the new government the same day kvaternik made the proclamation. ante pavelić arrived on april 20th to become the "poglavnik" (leader, correlated with "führer"- better to translate as a "head-man"). the roman catholic church's official stance was also openly positive in this period.