Government, Political Parties

The CDU, a party of the political center-right to far right, dominated Croatia from the first free elections in 1990 to the parliamentary elections in January 2000. Until 2000, when a center-left coalition formed by the Croatian Social Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party roundly defeated the CDU, many parties were small and disunited in their opposition to the CDU. The Croatian Party of Rights is on the extreme right. More centrist to leftist parties include the Croatian Social Liberal Party, the Croatian Peasants’ Party, the Croatian People’s Party, and the Social Democratic Party. The Istrian Democratic Assembly is an important regional party. Serbs in Croatia have several political parties of their own.