REPUBLIC OF CROATIA Official name: Republika Hrvatska (Republic of Croatia) Location: Central Europe International organisations: The Council of Europe, The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, The United Nations, The World Trade Organisation Borders: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Serbia, Slovenia Coastline: Adriatic Sea Land area: 56,542 Km2 Population: 4,400,000 Ethnicity: Croatian 78.1%, Serbian 12.2%. There are small minorities of Hungarians, Italians, Czechs and Albanians.

Languages: Croatian is the official language and is spoken by over 80% of the population. The Serb minority speak Serbian, which is similar to Croatian but written in the Cyrillic alphabet.
Religion: Nearly 90% of the population are at least nominally Christians. The Croats are Catholics and the Serbs are Orthodox. There is a small Moslem minority.
Form of government: Parliamentary democratic republic. Croatia is divided into 20 counties and the capital city.
Capital: Zagreb
Constitution: The Constitution of the Republic of Croatia came into effect on 22 December 1990.
Head of state: The President, elected by direct universal suffrage for a five-year term. The President's functions are largely ceremonial.
Head of government: The Prime Minister, appointed by the President. The Prime Minister is the leader of the largest party in the legislature and is accountable to it.
Legislature: Croatia has a unicameral legislature, the Assembly (Sabor). The House of Representatives (Zastupnički Dom) has 151 members, elected for four-year terms. Of these, 140 members are elected from multi-member constituencies. Six members are elected by proportional representation to represent Croatians living abroad and five members are elected to represent ethnic minorities. The upper house of the parliament, the House of Counties, was abolished in March 2001.
Electoral authority: The State Electoral Commission administers national elections
Freedom House 2005 rating: Political Rights 2, Civil Liberties 2

Political history The mediaeval Kingdom of Croatia was united with Hungary in 1102. After the battle of Mohacs in 1526, most of Croatia was occupied by the Ottomans. During the early 17th century it was brought under Hapsburg rule as the Ottomans retreated. Croatian nationalism emerged in 19th century, and when the Hapsburg Empire collaped in 1918, Croatia joined with the Serbs and Slovenes to form a South Slav state, called Yugoslavia from 1929. When Yugoslavia was overrun by the Germans in 1941, a fascist movement seized power in Zagreb and declared a Croatian state under German protection. This regime massacred Jews and Serbs and its crimes discredited Croatian nationalism for a generation. In 1945 Croatia became a republic of the re-established Yugoslavia, under Communist rule until 1990. When Communist rule disintegrated, Croatia declared its independence in June 1991.

Under its first president, the nationalist leader Franjo Tudjman, Croatia fought a war with the Serb-controlled Yugoslav army in eastern Slavonia, then became involved in the prolonged civil war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Tudjman's extremism isolated Croatia from the European mainstream, but since his death in 1999 Croatia has followed a more moderate course.

Croatian politics are now dominated by the centre-left alliance led by President Stipe Mesic, consisting of the Social Democratic Party of Croatia, the Croatian Social Liberal Party and several minor parties. This alliance is opposed by Tudjman's party, the right-wing nationalist Croatian Democratic Community. Even further to the right is the Croatian Rights Party.

Other parties include the Croatian Peasant Party, which heads a five-party centrist alliance, the Serbian National Party, which represents the Serb minority, and the Hungarian Democratic Community of Croatia.