Croatian Party of Pensioners

Croatian Party of Pensioners Hrvatska stranka umirovljenika
Abbreviation	HSU
Leader	Veselko Gabričević
Founded	26 April 1996 (1996-04-26)
Headquarters	Zagreb, Croatia
Membership (2017)	11,000[1]
Ideology	Pensioners' interests[2] (single-issue politics)
Political position	Centre-left[3]
National affiliation	Restart Coalition (2010–2021) Croatian Democratic Union (since 2024)
Colours	Blue, red, white
Sabor	1 / 151
European Parliament	0 / 12
Website
www.hsu.hr
Politics of Croatia Political parties Elections

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

Legislative

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

European Parliament

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	0
2019	Valter Flego	Amsterdam Coalition	55,806	5.19 (#6)	0 / 12	0
2024	Ema Culi	None	5,235	0.70 (#9)	0 / 12	0

References

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).

External links

• Official website