Politika
- The Old Government Remains
- Where They Had Parted Ways
Politika's front page of 17 October 1926 followed the government crisis in Belgrade. Its lead report said that government circles, especially Radić's followers, had expected until two nights earlier that the Radicals and Radić's party would strike a deal leaving the cabinet largely unchanged, while other politicians warned that such a patch-up would only postpone a new crisis. The refusal to accept Prime Minister Uzunović's resignation was taken as a sign that the most authoritative quarter wanted the same outcome. A second report set out the Radical conditions on which the two parties had split, including a pledge that neither side would agitate by claiming that a Serbian, Croatian or Slovenian 'tribe' was persecuted. One of Radić's followers told the paper this would sanction in advance dissident movements like Dr. Nikić's.
This reading covers two excerpts transcribed directly from the page images of Politika of 17 October 1926: the opening of the lead report on the government crisis and a fragment of the report on the points of disagreement, which begins and ends mid-sentence. The OCR was unusable. Text at the tile edges is cut off, especially on the right side of the middle columns, some subheadings are incomplete, and the cartoon caption is too faint to read. The background pages available do not document the 14 July 1926 Radical–Radićevci agreement, the Zagreb railway station incident or Radić's apology to Czechoslovak parliamentarians, so the commentary does not discuss them.
Translation
The Old Government Remains
Government circles, especially those of Radić's party, viewed the political situation optimistically right up until the night before last. It was believed that the Radicals and Radić's followers would somehow come to terms after all, and that on the whole everything would stay as it was, perhaps with only some personnel changes. Even the other political circles expected the crisis to be resolved this way; they merely added that such a solution would mean only a temporary settlement of the open questions, and that a new crisis would have to follow as a result. That such a solution to the crisis was also desired in the most authoritative quarter was inferred from the fact that the resignation submitted by Mr. Uzunović had not been accepted; instead, attempts and efforts were made to close the crisis before the resignation was accepted.
Where They Had Parted Ways
…both sides declare that, in that case, should it arise, they will not carry on further agitation under the pretext that one tribe is being persecuted, whether Serbian, Croatian or Slovenian. Under this point of the communiqué, as was explained in the negotiating parties, Mr. Radić is forbidden, should he himself come into question, to mislead the Croatian popular masses as though the Croats were persecuted and endangered. Political circles stressed that this condition is truly hard and completely new in our political life until now. Regarding this demand of the Radicals, one of Radić's followers told us that it in fact means sanctioning in advance the question of dissident movements, such as the movement of Dr. Nikić was. 2) As the second condition, the Radicals set that Radić's followers unconditionally and…
Context
How the Radicals and Radić's party came to govern together
The partners whose quarrel fills this page had been bitter opponents only a year and a half earlier. In the February 1925 election the People's Radical Party stayed the largest group but won only 123 of the 315 seats, well short of a majority on its own. Talks after the election ended with Radić renouncing republicanism and accepting the monarchy, and his party publicly recognized the central government, the rule of the monarch and the Vidovdan constitution. After Pašić left office, Nikola Uzunović became prime minister on 8 April 1926, heading a Radical–Peasant Party coalition, but he faced internal conflict within his party, and a succession of short-lived governments came and went while he held office. The October crisis in Politika is one of these episodes. The paper reports that government circles had expected until two nights earlier that the two parties would settle their differences with no more than a few changes of personnel.
How long the patched-up coalition lasted
According to the report, the refusal to accept Uzunović's resignation was taken to mean that the 'most authoritative quarter' wanted the coalition kept, but it did not name who that was or explain the reasoning. It also recorded the forecast of other political circles that any such settlement would be temporary and would lead to a new crisis. Later events bore out that forecast. The Peasant Party had little real influence in the coalition, which lasted only until 1927. The power-sharing arrangement was cut short after the death of the Radical leader Nikola Pašić on 10 December 1926, and the Peasant Party left the government in January 1927. Uzunović's own premiership ended on 17 April 1927. The partnership also cost Radić's party: it lost its popularity and one-third of its vote share in the 1927 election. 'The old government remains' therefore described a reprieve of a few months, not a lasting settlement.
Dr. Nikić and the dissidents inside Radić's camp
The Radićevac quoted in the second report objected that the Radical condition would sanction in advance 'dissident movements such as the movement of Dr. Nikić'. Nikola Nikić was no outsider: when the 1925 power-sharing deal was struck, he was one of the Peasant Party members given ministerial posts, alongside Pavle Radić, Benjamin Šuperina and Ivan Krajač. Radić's decision to join the coalition was criticised both in Croatia and within the party itself, and part of the membership broke away in protest to form the Croatian Federalist Peasant Party. The paper treats Nikić's movement as a known precedent and does not describe it. What the quotation shows is that Radić's side feared the agitation clause would tie its hands against breakaway movements within its own camp.
Why a ban on claims of persecution weighed so heavily
The Radical demand reported here would have forbidden Radić, 'should he himself come into question', from telling the Croatian masses that Croats were persecuted and endangered, and political circles called it hard and unprecedented. The weight of the clause becomes clearer against Radić's record. Throughout his career he had opposed the union and later Serb hegemony in Yugoslavia. Only a year and a half before this page appeared, in the run-up to the 1925 election, the authorities had tried to suppress his party through political, police, military and paramilitary pressure and had arrested its leaders. A pledge not to speak of persecution would thus have taken from Radić the argument his movement had grown on, precisely in the event that he himself faced official action. The communiqué's wording, which named Serbs, Croats and Slovenes alike as 'tribes', put the obligation formally on both sides, but the paper's account shows that the negotiators understood it as aimed at Radić.
Original
Остаје стара влада
Владини кругови, нарочито радићевски, посматрали су политичку ситуацију оптимистички све до прексиноћ. Веровало се да ће се радикали и радићевци ипак на неки начин погодити и да ће углавном све остати по старом, можда само с неким личним изменама. Такво решење кризе очекивали су чак и остали политички кругови, који су само додавали да би такво решење значило привремено решење отворених питања и да би као резултат тога морала следовати нова криза. Да се такво решење кризе жели и на најмеродавнијем месту извођен је закључак по томе што оставка коју је поднео г. Узуновић није уважена већ је покушавано и чињени су напори да се криза затвори пре него што се оставка уважи.
НА ЧЕМУ СУ СЕ БИЛИ РАЗИШЛИ.
једна и друга страна изјављују да за тај случај ако дође да неће водити даљу агитацију под изговором да се прогони једно племе било српско било хрватско било словеначко. Према овој тачци комуникеја како се објашњавало у преговарајућим странама г. Радићу се забрањује да заводи хрватске народне масе, ако би он дошао у питање, као да су Хрвати прогоњени и угрожени. Политички кругови истицали су да је овај услов заиста тежак и потпуно нов у нашем политичком животу до сада. Поводом овог захтева радикала један од радићеваца нам је изјавио да ово у ствари значи унапред санкционисати питање дисидентских покрета као што је био покрет г. др. Никића. 2) Као други услов радикали су постављали да радићевци безусловно и