Politika
- Before a New Coalition
- How It Went at the Last Session of the Government
Politika's front page of 14 October 1926 was dominated by the fall of Nikola Uzunović's cabinet, the coalition of the Radicals and Stjepan Radić's Croatian Peasant Party. One report explained that the crisis had in effect opened two days earlier with lengthy cabinet deliberations, and that the Radical ministers, all but one, refused this time to overlook Radić's latest outburst or settle for his customary reassurances; its headline already looked ahead to a new coalition. A second report described the final cabinet session, where Uzunović delivered a long speech, praised by all the ministers, that reviewed his government's tasks and efforts, blamed Radić's conduct for making calm work impossible and singled out an incident at the Zagreb railway station.
This reading covers parts of two reports from Politika's front page of 14 October 1926. Both excerpts begin and end mid-sentence because their columns run past the edges of the image tiles. The text was transcribed from the page images, since the OCR was almost entirely garbled. Other crisis stories on the page, including 'ВЛАДА ЈЕ У ОСТАВЦИ', 'ИЗЈАВА Г. УЗУНОВИЋА' and 'МИНИСТРИ ПОСЛЕ ОСТАВКЕ ВЛАДЕ', are cut at tile edges and are not translated. The cartoon subtitle and caption are partly cut or degraded, and the bottom lines of one tile are faint. The commentary does not reconstruct the details of the Zagreb railway station incident, Anđelinović's interpellation, or King Aleksandar's role in settling the crisis.
Translation
Before a New Coalition
…unfolded in such a way that it was clear — and we noted it at once at the time — that the government would have to resign. Already two days ago the government crisis was in fact opened, when lengthy deliberations began within the government, which for that reason had to set aside all the other so very important and urgent questions. The Radić men tried to soften the bad impression created by Mr. Radić's improper behaviour, but the Radical part of the government, with the exception of one member of the government, was not willing this time to pass so easily over Mr. Radić's outburst and to be satisfied, as it was put in Radical ranks, with his stock declarations, after which everything would again be as before and after which Mr. Radić would not change his attitude in the least, nor moderate his…
How It Went at the Last Session of the Government
…at the last session of the Council of Ministers gave a long speech, which all the ministers said was extraordinarily strong and very fine, and which in fact contains the motivation for the resignation. In his speech Mr. Uzunović set out all the tasks that had awaited his government and how much effort it had put into carrying them out. But there were difficulties, and first and foremost from Mr. St. Radić, who by his actions had made calm and more fruitful work by the government impossible. Here Mr. Uzunović enumerated all of Mr. Radić's outbursts to date, stressing in particular his latest outburst at the Zagreb rail-…
Context
How Uzunović became prime minister in 1926
Nikola Uzunović, whose farewell speech the second report describes, had been prime minister for only six months. Nikola Pašić, the long-dominant Radical leader, was forced to resign in April 1926 amid corruption scandals, and Uzunović took office on 8 April 1926 at the head of a government that rested on the Radicals' power-sharing partnership with Stjepan Radić's Croatian Peasant Party, in which Radić served as Minister for Education. Politika presents the October resignation as the product of strains inside that partnership: in its account the crisis had in effect been open for two days, and Uzunović used the last cabinet session to blame Radić for making calm work impossible. The resignation did not end Uzunović's premiership. He stayed in office until 17 April 1927 while internal party conflict and a succession of short-lived governments came and went under his watch, so the new coalition the headline anticipated was again formed under him.
Why the Radicals governed with Radić after the 1925 election
The coalition that collapsed in October 1926 joined two parties that had been bitter enemies only shortly before. In the February 1925 election the People's Radical Party remained the largest group, winning 123 of the 315 seats, well short of the 158 needed for a majority, while Radić's party won 67 seats even though its whole executive was in prison. The Croatian Peasant Party then made an agreement with the Radicals under which a power-sharing arrangement was struck along with a deal to release its leaders from jail. The party recognized the central government, the rule of the monarch and the Vidovdan constitution before the full parliament, and Radić himself became Minister for Education. That history explains the tone of the first report: the Radical ministers, all but one, treated Radić's repeated reassurances as stock declarations after which, in their view as Politika reports it, nothing in his behaviour would change.
Radić's record as an opponent of the Belgrade order
The Radicals' impatience with Radić's "outbursts" had a long history behind it. Throughout his career Radić opposed the union and, later, Serb hegemony in the kingdom. On 1 July 1924 he proclaimed that his party would join the Krestintern, after which centralists and monarchists accused him of communism and anti-state activities, and by the February 1925 election his party's entire executive was behind bars. Joining the government did not end what the Radicals called his outbursts. Both excerpts show the Radical side framing the October crisis as a question of Radić's personal conduct, with Uzunović listing all his outbursts and stressing the latest one at the Zagreb railway station. The excerpts themselves do not say what Radić said or did there; that account belongs to the government side as reported in Politika.
How the Radical–Radić partnership ended, 1926–1929
The partnership survived the October crisis only by months. According to Radić's biography, the power-sharing arrangement was cut short after the death of the Radical Party's president, Nikola Pašić, on 10 December 1926, and Radić resigned his ministerial post and returned to the opposition; the account of the 1925 election's aftermath states that Uzunović resigned in April 1927 after the Croatian Peasant Party decided to leave his government. The two accounts date the break somewhat differently, but both place it shortly after the crisis Politika reports. The consequences reached far beyond cabinet arithmetic. On 20 June 1928 Radić was shot in the National Assembly by the Radical deputy Puniša Račić; the assassination further alienated Croats and Serbs and began the breakdown of the parliamentary system. On 6 January 1929 King Alexander dissolved parliament and abolished the constitution.
Original
ПРЕД НОВОМ КОАЛИЦИЈОМ
јали тако да је било јасно, и ми смо то у своје време одмах и констатовали, да мора доћи до оставке владе. Још пре два дана стварно отворена је криза владе када су отпочела дуготрајна саветовања у влади која је због тога морала да остави на страну сва друга толико важна и хитна питања. Радићевци су се трудили да ублаже рђав, утисак који је добивен неупутним понашањем г. Радића, али радикални део владе, с изузетком једног члана владе, није био вољан да овога пута тако лако пређе преко испада г. Радића и да се задовољи, како је то речено у радикалним редовима, његовим шаблонским изјавама после којих би опет било све по старом и после којих г. Радић не би променио ни мало своје држање нити умерио своје
КАКО ЈЕ БИЛО НА ПОСЛЕДЊОЈ СЕДНИЦИ ВЛАДЕ
њој последњој седници министарског савета одржао један дуг говор за који су сви министри казали да је био изванредно јак и врло леп и који у ствари садржи мотивацију оставке. У своме говору г. Узуновић је изнео какви су све задатци очекивали његову владу и колико је она напора унела да би их извршила. Али је било тешкоћа и то у првом реду од стра на г. Ст. Радића који је својим поступцима онемогућио спокојан и плоднији рад владе. Ту је г. Узуновић побројао све досадашње испаде г. Радића подвлачећи нарочито његов последњи испад на загребачкој желез -