15th December 2018 in Zagreb, the 4th Monarchist in the pub event was held, under the patronage of the Croatian Royal Council (CRC). This is a unique monarchist thematic socialization in a pleasant atmosphere of a 19th century Zagreb coffeehouse. In such a leisure and informal atmosphere subjects from Croatian history and contemporary monarchism were discussed.
The main topic of the 4th Monarchists in the pub was:
President Franjo Tuđman and the Monarchy
On the main subject:
Through its millennial history, Croatia has never been a republic, until the emergence of communism in the 20th century, all this time its form of government was a monarhchy (early on a kuchy and later a kingdom). Already at the very beginning of the restoration of Croatian statehood in 1990, certain segments and the plans, that the restored Croatian state were given features of a monarchy, either as a reflection of Croatian history or as a newly-created monarchical (or similar to monarchical) feature. President Franjo Tudjman is distinctive in character and history, with different political and ideological preferences. During his personal history he was a Yugoslav Partisan volunteer and officer, the youngest Yugoslav general, president of JSD Partizan (football club), a Member of the Secretariat of the Main Board of SSRNH, Director of the Institute for the History of the Workers' Movement Croatia, a professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences in Zagreb and one of the founders of the HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union) and in the end of the first Croatian President. Although he was historically inclined to extremes, in the desire of a personal ideology of reconciliation of the generations, in 1990 he gave interesting observations of the monarchist structure to the reestablished Croatian state. He introduces the practice of using the Ban's Royal Standard (banner), which can be seen in every important state event, he introduces a newly created the so called "Ban's Guard", introduces a newly created protocol similar to Banal one, his first seat was located in the Bans Royal Palace (banski Dvori) in Zagreb. He introduced a State coat of arms with a new heraldic crown, and on its initiative introduces a large number of nobles to the Croatian Parliament as the members of the HDZ party.
Although it seems at first glance, to keep up with the monarchy history or even reintroduction of it, to the extent that the Croatian Crown Prince dr. Oton (Otto) Habsburg-Lothringen became the only person in Croatia with the noble title introduced in his official ID (although the State doesn't use any kind of academic or noble title in official ID), as well as Croatia's representative in international relations. The end of the whole story of monarchy was a great disappointment, most of the original ideas disappear within just a few years of his governing. The project of the "Croatian Knights" became a gray zone for money embezzlement from the Croatian emigre instead of a future corner stone for official nobility recognition by the State. The idea of returning property and industry to Magnate noble families was reduced to so-called myth Tuđman's of 200 families, with members being newly-created tycoons which would heavily destroy Croatian economy via an illegal privatization process. Finally, the idea of the Banovina of Croatia, which he often mentioned in public, ends with the surrender of 760,000 Croats of Hezceg-Bosnia (Bosnia-Herzegovina Croats) to newly created entities and especially the Bosniak-Muslim dominated Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Throughout this history, the question arises as to whether Franjo Tudjman was really forced from second or third party influence to give up the revitalization of the monarchy, or did she just use it as a cover for various behind-the-scenes decisions?
After the end of the main debate the informal socializing continued with open subjects to participate in, as well as open leisure conversation. Beside the patronage, members of Croatian Royal Council also participated in the event.
We would like to thank all members for participating in this monarchist social gathering, which in a relaxed atmosphere of a 19th century coffee house discussed historical and current monarchist events and subjects.