35 years ago, Croatia received its first constitution, also known as the Christmas Constitution

35 years ago, on December 21, 1990, the representatives of the first convocation of Croatian Parliament adopted the first Constitution of the Republic of Croatia, which paved the way for its autonomy and independence, and because it was adopted ahead of Christmas, it is also known as the Christmas Constitution.

“There can be no doubt that the adoption of the Constitution has the characteristics of an exceptional historical act, and for two reasons,” said the first Croatian President Dr. Franjo Tuđman at the proclamation of the Constitution and the day after, who in the summer of that year presented guidelines for the drafting of the new constitution.

He emphasized that this Constitution marks the final break with the communist so-called socialist-self-governing one-party system and forms the basis for the construction of full national state sovereignty.

“The final judgment on the true meaning of this act today will certainly be made by future generations in the context of further historical events,” Tuđman said at the ceremony of the proclamation of the Constitution, on December 22, which Parliament adopted the day before at a joint session of all three of its municipal councils, the associated labor and the socio-political council.

Krstulović Opara: I knew I was participating in a historical event

“It was very festive, the bells were ringing at the church of St. Mark,” this is how current MP Andro Krstulović Opara (HDZ) remembers December 22, he was the youngest MP (24) and a student in the first convocation. He came to the ceremonial session from the Cvjetno naselje student dormitory, he says that he did not have a formal suit, and he borrowed a tie from a colleague.

“At that time, MPs performed their duties voluntarily, they received a lump sum that would have the equivalent of 70 euros today,” said Krstulović Opara.

He says that on that day he was very aware that he was participating in a historical event that he would remember for the rest of his life.

“President Tuđman knew how to inspire people with his speeches, he gave us the feeling for days that we were doing something important,” he said, adding that the deputies viewed the adoption of the Christmas Constitution as a process in the creation of Croatia, not as an isolated event.

The turning point of 1990

By adopting the Constitution, Croatia, then still part of the SFRY, concluded an exceptionally dynamic, pivotal 1990. In the spring of that year, the first multi-party democratic elections were held, on May 30, a new democratic government led by the HDZ was established, and in mid-August, an armed rebellion by a part of the local Serbs broke out, known as the Log Revolution.

Work on the new Constitution began in the summer of that year. It was operationally led by the Parliamentary Commission for Constitutional Affairs and the Constitutional Commission of the Presidency of the Republic, adhering to the guidelines of President Tuđman. These guidelines included the principles of multi-party parliamentarianism, economic and political efficiency of Croatia, its sovereignty, and respect for human and civil rights.

229 members of various political affiliations, ages, and professions were appointed to the Constitutional Commission.

“Their direct contribution to the final wording of the Constitution may be small in scope, but it is great in importance,” Tuđman said at the ceremonial session, citing an interesting example.

In listing Croatia's natural resources in Article 52, the writers of the Constitution forgot the sea, but their mistake was corrected by fisherman Ivan Vela with the inspired explanation that a single word, "sea", is of crucial importance for Croatia.

The draft of the Constitution written in Malinska on the island of Krk

The draft of the first Croatian Constitution was written in two weeks of August in Malinska on the island of Krk and was nicknamed the Krk Stance, and almost three-quarters of that draft ultimately became part of the Christmas Constitution.

The draft was written by a working group that included Vladimir Šeks, Smiljko Sokol, Krunislav Olujić and Ljubomir Valković, and as Sokol explained in the book Croatian Constitution and its Krk Draft (1990) by Tomislav Galović, the choice of Malinska was made for rather prosaic reasons.

That place was close to everyone and easily accessible, at that time one of the most beautiful Croatian hotels was still in operation there, but also because he had a weekend house in neighboring Sveti Vid.

The draft of the new Constitution was published in the Vjesnik newspaper on November 27 and aroused great public interest. By December 20, the Commission for Constitutional Affairs had received about a thousand pages of comments and proposals, or three books.

“Citizens, local communities, municipal assemblies, religious communities, political parties, professional and other associations and a number of others submitted their proposals,” reported Šeks, the president of the parliamentary Commission for Constitutional Affairs, which was tasked with preparing all constitutional documents for the adoption of the new Constitution.

It was a time without the internet and electronic mail, the materials were delivered to the representatives physically, and given the large number of objections to the draft Constitution, it was technically impossible to deliver them all at once.

The Commission therefore decided to deliver them successively, in three books, the first two of which had around 600 pages of text, the first was received by the representatives by mail, the second was distributed to their benches on December 21, and included objections received by December 18. It was not technically possible to edit and deliver objections received after that day, so they were in the Commission's original form and each representative could inspect their content.

Domljan: The Constitution confirms the centuries-old existence of the state

From the Constitutional Commission, with more than two hundred members, a second, more operational expert working group emerged, consisting of Veljko Mratović, Smiljko Sokol, Nikola Filipović, Branko Smerdel and Secretary Darko Bekić.

The final text of the proposed Constitution was prepared by the Editorial Group consisting of Šeks, Sokol and Zdravko Tomac. The original basis, or preamble, was written personally by Franjo Tuđman.

The new Constitution had nine sections with 142 articles and was among the shortest European constitutions. It established the Republic of Croatia as a national state of the Croatian people and a state of members of indigenous national minorities, as a single and indivisible democratic and social state, and defined the system of representative democracy and the principle of the three-way separation of powers.

“With this Constitution, the Croatian people will confirm their centuries-old statehood, at today's historical turning point, which rejected the half-century-old unnatural communist system, we will continue to build a modern, sovereign and legal Croatian state,” said the first Parliament Speaker Žarko Domljan.

However, the designation of Croatia as a national state of the Croatian people was not well received by some representatives of Serbian nationality who were elected to Parliament from different party lists, and so Marko Atlagić (SS-SSH) declared that the adoption of such a Constitution that places the Serbian people in the position of a national minority means the declaration of civil war of the Serbian people in Croatia. Dušan Ergarac (SDS) warned the Parliament that, if it adopts such a Constitution, it will not be applied on the territory of the so called Krajina region where the Serbian people live.

Under the watchful eye of the public

The Croatian public closely followed everything that happened in Parliament and on St. Mark's Square in 1990, often gathering under the windows of the Parliament building. The same was true of the Christmas Constitution, whose adoption was celebrated in Zagreb's City Café, in front of which a large crowd of citizens also gathered. Carried away by their enthusiasm, Domljan exclaimed "We have it!", referring, of course, to the Constitution.

Time has taken its toll, a large number of those involved in the adoption of the first Croatian Constitution and participants in the historic session in December 1990 are no longer alive, and the memory of them is preserved on December 22 in the painting Proclamation of the Constitution by the painter Jadranka Fatur.

Source: HRT