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Croatian Party of Pensioners

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Croatian Party of Pensioners
Hrvatska stranka umirovljenika
AbbreviationHSU
LeaderVeselko Gabričević
Founded26 April 1996 (1996-04-26)
HeadquartersZagreb, Croatia
Membership (2017)11,000[1]
IdeologyPensioners' interests[2] (single-issue politics)
Political positionCentre-left[3]
National affiliationRestart Coalition
(2010–2021)
Croatian Democratic Union (since 2024)
ColoursBlue, red, white
  Light blue
Sabor
1 / 151
European Parliament
0 / 12
Website
www.hsu.hr

The Croatian Party of Pensioners (Croatian: Hrvatska stranka umirovljenika or HSU) is a Croatian centre-left political party that is currently led by Veselko Gabričević.

When the party was founded, few people took it seriously and many commentators speculated that the ultimate purpose of HSU was to take away pensioners' votes from rejuvenated SDP and thus help ruling HDZ remain in power.[citation needed] However, the party gradually built its organisation throughout the country and slowly rose in popularity due to both HDZ and left-centre cabinets of Ivica Račan refusing to honour a Constitutional Court verdict that ordered the government to pay back pensions that had been denied in the early 1990s.[citation needed]

HSU gained much notoriety after local and regional elections in May 2005 when many of its members got elected on left-centre election tickets only to support HDZ and right-wing parties during the forming of coalition governments.[citation needed]

At the 2007 Croatian parliamentary election, the party won 101,091 votes and 4.1% of the votes, but this time the electoral math (D'Hondt method) allowed them to receive only a single representative in the Parliament, Silvano Hrelja. They continued to support the government of Ivo Sanader, which in turn continued to pursue pensioner-related policies aligned with the opinion of the HSU.

In 2009, the economic crisis caused the government of Jadranka Kosor to start talks about extra crisis taxation and after a row with the finance minister Ivan Šuker, the HSU withdrew their support for the government.[citation needed]

The party participated in the Kukuriku coalition since 2011. It continued with the coalition Croatia is Growing at the 2015 Croatian parliamentary election. In that election, it became possible for the candidates of HSU to receive preferential votes, and they won a total of 11,026 (out of a coalition total of 744,507).[4]

Election results

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Legislative

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Election Coalition with Votes % Seats +/–
Coalition HSU
2000 None 52,571 1.81%
0 / 151
New
2003 None 98,537 4.0%
3 / 151
Increase 3
2007 DSU 101,091 4.1%
1 / 151
Decrease 2
2011 Kukuriku Coalition 958,318 41.1%
3 / 151
Increase 2
2015 Croatia is Growing 742,909 33.2%
2 / 151
Decrease 1
2016 People's Coalition 636,602 33.45%
2 / 151
Steady 0
2020 Restart Coalition 414,615 24.87%
1 / 151
Decrease 1
2024 HDZ-HSLSHNSHDS 729,949 34.44%
1 / 151
Steady 0

European Parliament

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Election List leader Coalition Votes % Seats +/– EP Group
Coalition HSU
2013 Tonino Picula Kukuriku Coalition 237,778 32.07 (#2)
0 / 12
New
2014 Neven Mimica Kukuriku Coalition 275,904 29.93 (#2)
0 / 11
Steady 0
2019 Valter Flego Amsterdam Coalition 55,806 5.19 (#6)
0 / 12
Steady 0
2024 Ema Culi None 5,235 0.70 (#9)
0 / 12
Steady 0

References

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  1. ^ "HNS Vesne Pusić ima više članova od Milanovićeva SDP-a". Večernji.hr. Retrieved 16 March 2016.
  2. ^ Nordsieck, Wolfram (2020). "Croatia". Parties and Elections in Europe.
  3. ^ "Croatia – Parties". Europe Elects. Retrieved 20 June 2020.
  4. ^ Suzana Barilar (13 November 2015). "Preferencijalni glasovi". Jutarnji list (in Croatian).
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