Politika
- A Compulsion
- Session of the Democratic Union
- Work of the Commission of Inquiry
Politika's front page of 19 October 1926 was taken up by a government crisis in Belgrade. A sharp editorial, "A Compulsion", argued that the consequences of the Zagreb incident involving Stjepan Radić, which Prime Minister Nikola Uzunović had tried to secure by resigning, now lay buried in a secret protocol worth no more than Radić's promises. It traced how the incident moved from discussion in cabinet to a government crisis, the resignation, and conditions set for Radić. A shorter report said the Democratic Union would file interpellations on domestic, foreign and economic policy and had discussed aid for flooded regions. It also reported that the Assembly's commission of inquiry was still reading files on the so-called Subotica affair, which many members called a waste of time.
This reading covers three excerpts from the front page. The editorial "A Compulsion" begins and ends mid-sentence, the Democratic Union report begins mid-word, and both news excerpts run on into neighbouring subheads. The "SITUATION" item, the subhead on Pašić's arrival and the item "Why Was the Crisis Opened?" are cut off at tile edges or faint and are not translated, and personal names and figures in the faint passages were not transcribed. The page as read does not explain the Zagreb incident or the terms of the secret protocol.
Translation
A Compulsion
…Zagreb incident ought to have had, and which Mr. Uzunović himself wanted to secure by submitting his resignation, now lie buried in a secret protocol. What is the value of that protocol? Not even Mr. Uzunović himself can be in any doubt about it. That protocol is worth as much as Mr. Radić's promises. And Mr. Radić keeps only those promises that suit his calculations, and only in the way that suits his calculations. Is that also the calculation of this country? Obviously it is not. Is Mr. Uzunović aware of this? Undoubtedly he is, for otherwise he would not have submitted his resignation. The Zagreb incident had taken place. Mr. Uzunović declared at once that the matter was being examined in the government. The examination in the government was followed by a crisis in the government, and the crisis in the government by the resignation. The matter, then, had been taken seriously. It appeared that the person of Mr. Radić no longer offered any guarantee that similar incidents would not be repeated. Only the prospects of worse had grown. And that is why, after the resignation, certain conditions were set for Mr. Radić. These –
Session of the Democratic Union
…parliamentary work. It was decided that during the regular session the question of the government's domestic policy, the question of foreign policy, and then the question of the economic program and of resolving the economic crisis would be raised. The necessary interpellations will be submitted on all these questions. At the session there was also talk of the need to give real help to the flooded regions. WORK OF THE COMMISSION OF INQUIRY. There were again no significant moments yesterday in the work of the Commission of Inquiry, since the commission still has by no means got beyond reading the files, about which many members say that…
Work of the Commission of Inquiry
…regions. WORK OF THE COMMISSION OF INQUIRY. There were again no significant moments yesterday in the work of the Commission of Inquiry, since the commission still has by no means got beyond reading the files, which many members say is merely a waste of time. Yesterday further files from the so-called Subotica affair were read. WHY WAS THE CRISIS OPENED?
Context
The Uzunović–Radić coalition behind the editorial
The editorial is about two men who sat in the same cabinet. Nikola Uzunović, a Radical, became prime minister on 8 April 1926 after Nikola Pašić was forced to resign over corruption scandals. Stjepan Radić's Croatian Peasant Party had entered government through a 1925 agreement with the Radicals that shared power and released the party's leaders from jail. On 27 March 1925, in front of the full parliament, the party recognized the central government, the rule of the monarch and the Vidovdan constitution, and Radić himself was made minister of education. That is the setting for Politika's argument. The paper treats Radić as a coalition partner whose word cannot be trusted, and it reads Uzunović's resignation as the prime minister's own admission that his partner offered no guarantees. The excerpts read here do not say what the Zagreb incident was or what the secret protocol contained, and the verdict that the protocol is worthless is the paper's own.
Why the Radicals could not simply govern without Radić
The parliamentary arithmetic explains why a quarrel with Radić turned into a crisis of the whole cabinet. In the February 1925 election the People's Radical Party remained the largest faction but won 123 of the 315 seats, short of the 158 needed for a majority, while Radić's party, with its executive behind bars, won 67 seats. Uzunović's premiership was marked by conflict inside his own party, and a succession of short-lived governments came and went under him. The coalition the editorial attacks survived this October crisis for a time, but not for long: in April 1927 Uzunović resigned as prime minister after the Croatian Peasant Party decided to leave his government.
Protocols as a recurring source of mistrust
Politika's claim that the protocol is worth only as much as Radić's promises draws on a longer history of disputed written understandings between the Radicals and Radić's party. The historian Latinka Perović describes an earlier document, the Zagreb or Markov protocol, which came out of talks between Radić's party and the Radicals before 1925 and was meant to serve as the basis for an agreement. According to her, the Radicals then treated that document as no agreement at all but merely the minutes of a conversation. In that earlier case, on her account, it was the Radical side that set a protocol aside. The 1926 editorial lays the blame for unreliability on Radić alone, and that judgment is best read as the paper's own position.
Interpellations, inquiries and the corruption affairs of 1926
The Democratic Union's plan to file interpellations and the Assembly commission's slow reading of files took place in a parliament where questioning ministers about scandals carried real political weight. According to a study quoted by the weekly Vreme, Pašić, the Radical leader, withdrew from power in 1926 discredited by his refusal to convene the National Assembly at which two interpellations against his son were to be debated. Vreme lists a series of affairs in which Rade Pašić was involved, along with several dozen similar ones. The front page does not say what the so-called Subotica affair was. The report shows only that the commission was still reading its files and that many members thought this a waste of time.
Politika's own stance toward Radić
The hostile tone of "A Compulsion" matches what historians later said about the paper. Latinka Perović, describing the atmosphere before Radić was shot in the Assembly in June 1928, writes that Politika's editor-in-chief Milan Gavrilović shaped its writing in a way that created "bad blood" between Serbs and Croats. Her judgment concerns the paper's later coverage rather than this editorial, but it gives readers reason to read the 1926 piece as advocacy. Radić was shot in parliament by the People's Radical Party politician Puniša Račić, and the assassination further alienated Croats and Serbs and began the breakdown of the parliamentary system that culminated in the dictatorship of 6 January 1929.
Original
ЈЕДНА ПРИНУДА
гребачки инцидент требао да има и које је г. Узуновић и сâм хтео да прибави подношењем оставке, леже сада закопане у једном тајном протоколу. Каква је вредност тог протокола? О њој ни сâм г. Узуновић не може бити у сумњи. Тај протокол вреди онолико колико и обећања г. Радића. А г. Радић држи само она обећања која му иду у рачун и онако како му иду у рачун. Да ли је то и рачун ове земље? Очевидно да није. Да ли је свестан тога г. Узуновић? Несумњиво да је, јер иначе не би подносио оставку. Десио се био загребачки инцидент. Г. Узуновић је изјавио одмах да се ствар претреса у влади. Претресу у влади следовала је криза у влади, а кризи у влади оставка. Ствар је, дакле, схваћена била озбиљно. Изгледало је да личност г. Радића није пружала више никаквих гаранција, да се слични инциденти неће поновити. Повећани су само изгледи на горе. И зато су после оставке, постављени г. Радићу извесни услови. Те -
СЕДНИЦА ДЕМОКРАТСКЕ ЗАЈЕДНИЦЕ
ламентаран рад. Одлучено је да се у редовном сазиву покрене питање владине унутрашње политике, питање спољне политике, затим питање економског програма и решења економске кризе. По свима овим питањима поднеће се потребне интерпелације. На седници је било речи и о потреби да се стварно помогне поплављеним крајевима. РАД АНКЕТНОГ ОДБОРА. У раду Анкетног Одбора није ни јуче било важнијих момената пошто одбор још никако не излази из читања аката за које многи чланови кажу да
РАД АНКЕТНОГ ОДБОРА
крајевима. РАД АНКЕТНОГ ОДБОРА. У раду Анкетног Одбора није ни јуче било важнијих момената пошто одбор још никако не излази из читања аката за које многи чланови кажу да представља само губљење времена. Јуче су читана даље акта из такозване суботичке афере. ЗАШТО ЈЕ ОТВОРЕНА КРИЗА?