Демократска странка и споразум Цветковић–Мачек
Democratic Party and the Cvetković–Maček Agreement

Summary/Abstract: At the onset of the Yugoslav Kingdom, the Democratic Party stood out by its Yugoslav name, the number of organisations, width of the territory that it covered, the multitude of intellectuals among its ranks and its exclusive espousal of strict unitaristic-centralistic solutions. However, the resistance shown mainly by Croatian parties to the Vidovdan Constitution, based on such principles, caused the first vacillations and the decision of a part of the Party leadership to look for a compromise with the Croats. This was one of the most important reasons for the first great party division. Its part which remained with the Party’s leader Ljubomir (Ljuba) Davidović, a staunch supporter of the national-political compromise, in time leaned increasingly to federalism as a form of state organisation. The decisive steps were made in 1932 and 1933 when the Democratic Party opted for the creation of four federal units – three formed around large cultural-historical centres (Belgrade, Zagreb and Ljubljana), and the fourth consisting of Bosnia and Herzegovina, so as to avoid a sharp division between the Serbs and Croats in that area. Accepting to “sacrifice” Bosnia and Herzegovina in the interest of state integrity, the democrats were unyielding in regard to Vojvodina, believing that it was only Vojvodina that could have autonomy within the Serbian unit. The Cvetković–Maček Agreement and the creation of the Banovina of Croatia in August 1939, whose width of the territory jeopardised the interests of the Serbian nation, and the scope of its competences endangered the interests of state integrity, forced the Democratic Party to abandon the proposal of the creation of four federal units. Protesting over the adoption of the decision on the creation of the Banovina of Croatia in a non-democratic procedure, by singling out only one federal unit, without real representatives of the Serbian people, it however accepted it as a fait accompli. It, however, also put forward its decisive request that the entire territory that remained outside the Banovina of Croatia and the future Slovenian unit should become a single Serbian unit. The determination by which it supported such solution and criticised the new situation made it the most important opponent of the Cvetković–Maček Agreement.

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