Politika
- A Break?
- Mr. St. Radić's Audience
Politika's front page of 16 October 1926 followed a cabinet crisis in Belgrade. One report said the Crown had still not decided on the government's submitted resignation, which the paper took as confirming that the question would wait until a new combination was ready, or until it was clear the existing one could survive with minor personal changes. It described Stjepan Radić arriving in Belgrade full of optimism, predicting a settlement within the day and a quick return to Zagreb, and meeting Prime Minister Uzunović. A second report caught Radić leaving his audience with the King at 12:40 in the company of P. Radić, sullen and terse: he said they had talked only about Geneva, would not reveal the King's questions, and flatly denied that he would give up the leadership.
This edition is a partial reading of two front-page items, transcribed from the page images because the OCR was unusable. The first report is cut off at its beginning and end, and illegible words are marked [?]. Related pieces headed 'Г. РАДИЋ КОД Г. УЗУНОВ…' and 'ПОСЛЕ ПОСЕТЕ Г. УЗУНОВ…' are truncated at the image edges and are not translated. The page does not explain what Radić meant by talking 'only about Geneva'.
Translation
A Break?
[?] since the Crown, too, has not [?] a decision on the resignation that was submitted, which has confirmed the versions that this question will be settled only once a new combination is completely ready, that is, once it is clear whether the existing combination can be maintained, naturally with minor personal changes. Mr. Radić arrived in Belgrade yesterday and brought with him a great deal of optimism, and even the assertion that the crisis would be resolved during the day itself, so that he too would be able to return to Zagreb either at once or by this morning at the latest. A meeting took place between Mr. Radić and Mr. Uzunović; after that Mr. Radić was also [?]
Mr. St. Radić's Audience
At 12:40 Mr. Radić came out of the Palace accompanied by Mr. P. Radić. Mr. S. Radić looked ill-humoured and did not want to give the journalists any lengthy explanations. To the journalists' many questions, fired from all sides, Mr. Radić replied:
— We talked only about Geneva. The King put two or three questions to me, which I cannot tell you for the time being, but which you will see from the results.
— Is it true that you will give up the leadership?
— Oh, not at all! Mr. Radić answered categorically, with a resolute wave of his hand. Then he paused and asked in astonishment:
— And who would ask for that?
Context
How Uzunović came to lead the cabinet whose resignation was pending
Politika reported that the Crown had not yet ruled on a submitted resignation and that, in the paper's reading, the matter would be held over until a new combination was ready or the existing one proved viable with minor personal changes. The cabinet in question was headed by Nikola Uzunović of the People's Radical Party. He had become prime minister on 8 April 1926, after Nikola Pašić, faced with corruption scandals, was forced to resign. Uzunović's tenure was troubled: he faced internal conflict within his own party, and a succession of short-lived governments came and went while he remained at their head, until his premiership ended on 17 April 1927. The Crown's wait-and-see stance described in the article fits that pattern, in which the prime minister stayed in place while the composition of his cabinet was renegotiated. The article itself gives no figures or names for the proposed changes, only the newspaper's report of the prevailing versions in Belgrade.
The 1925 Radical–Peasant Party arrangement behind Radić's trip to Belgrade
The government whose survival Politika weighed rested on an agreement of 1925, when Stjepan Radić's Croatian Peasant Party made a deal with the People's Radical Party under which power was shared between them. Under that arrangement Radić himself became Minister for Education, while other members of his party, among them Pavle Radić, Nikola Nikić, Benjamin Šuperina and Ivan Krajač, obtained ministerial posts. Any reshuffle of Uzunović's cabinet therefore directly concerned the Radicals' main partner, which explains why the paper followed Radić's arrival from Zagreb, his meeting with Uzunović and his audience at the Palace so closely. Politika recorded Radić's confidence that the crisis would be resolved within the day and his emphatic denial that he would give up the leadership, a rumour the reporters' question shows was circulating. The paper did not report the terms discussed; Radić told journalists only that the King's questions would become clear from the results.
What became of the coalition after the October 1926 crisis
The headline's question, whether a break was coming, was not answered by a rupture that autumn. The Radical–Peasant Party partnership lasted into the winter: on 24 December 1926 August Košutić, a prominent Peasant Party member and Radić's son-in-law, was named Minister of Construction in the government of Nikola Uzunović. The break came only weeks later, when the Peasant Party left the coalition with the Radicals on 1 February 1927. Uzunović's own premiership ended on 17 April 1927. Seen against this sequence, the crisis Politika described in October was one episode in a series of renegotiations rather than the end of the coalition, and Radić's insistence that he would not give up the leadership coincided with his party remaining in government for several more months.
Pavle Radić, Radić's companion at the Palace
The 'Mr. P. Radić' who walked out of the Palace with Stjepan Radić was Pavle Radić (1880–1928), a member of the Croatian People's Peasant Party and one of the party figures who received ministerial posts under the 1925 power-sharing agreement with the Radicals. His presence at the audience reflects his place in the party's leadership during its period in government. Less than two years after this report, on 20 June 1928, Pavle Radić was shot and killed in the National Assembly by the Radical deputy Puniša Račić, in the same attack in which Stjepan Radić was mortally wounded. That later shooting ended the period of cooperation and confrontation glimpsed in this article, in which the Peasant Party leaders moved between Zagreb, the Belgrade cabinet and the royal court.
Original
Раскид?
[?] пошто ни Круна није [?] ла одлуку о поднетој оставци, чиме су потврђене верзије да ће се то питање решити тек онда када буде потпуно готова нова комбинација, односно када се буде начисто да ли ће се досадашња комбинација моћи да одржи, наравно с малим личним променама. Г. Радић је јуче допутовао у Београд и собом је донео много оптимизма па чак и тврђење да ће криза бити решена још током дана те ће се и он моћи да врати у Загреб или одмах или најдаље до данас пре подне. Дошло је до виђења између г. Радића и г. Узуновића, г. Радић је после тога био и [?]
АУДИЕНЦИЈА Г. СТ. РАДИЋА
У 12 и 40 г. Радић изашао је из Двора у пратњи г. П. Радића. Г. С. Радић изгледао је зловољан и новинари ма није хтео давати никаква дужа објашњења. На унакрсна многобројна питања новинара г. Радић одговорио је: - Само смо о Женеви разговарали. Два, три питања ми је Краљ поставио, која вам не могу за сада казати, а која ћете видети по резултатима. - Је ли тачно да ћете се ви одрећи вођства? - А, никако! одговорио је категорички г. Радић, махнувши одрешито руком. Затим је застао и у чуду запитао: - А к оби то тражио?