President of the Presidency of the Socialist Republic of Croatia | |
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Residence | Visoka ulica 22, Zagreb |
Appointer | Croatian Parliament |
Formation | 1974 |
First holder | Jakov Blažević |
Final holder | Franjo Tuđman |
Abolished | 1990 |
The office of the President of the Presidency of the Socialist Republic of Croatia existed from its establishment in the 1974 constitution to its renaming and then total abolishment as part of democratic reforms in 1990.
A collective presidency existed in Yugoslavia at the federal level since amendments to the constitution in 1971. On 21 February 1974 a new federal Constitution was adopted which reaffirmed the collective federal presidency chaired by the President of the Presidency. The constituent republics adopted the same system in new constitutions of their own, with SR Croatia adopting theirs the following day on 22 February. A nine-member presidency was established, which included the President of the Presidency, elected by the Parliament to a four-year term. Members could not be elected for more than two consecutive terms.
After the death of Yugoslav President-for-life Josip Broz Tito in 1980, federal constitutional acts were put into force which made the federal Presidency rotate on an annual basis. This rotation system was expanded in 1981 to also include the speaker and deputy speaker of the Federal Assembly and their equivalents in the two component chambers. SR Croatia put in place a similar rotation system through 1981 constitutional amendments where members of the presidency would continue to be elected to four year terms but would rotate as Presidents on an annual basis. In 1986 additional constitutional amendments were enacted which increased the length served as President to two-years.
The first democratic reforms enacted by the League of Communists were in 1989 when constitutional amendments were approved which removed the President of the Presidency of the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Croatia as a member of the presidency ex officio. After the first multi-party elections in 1990, constitutional amendments were put in place which renamed the office of President of the Presidency to President of the Republic and reduced the presidency to seven total members. The December 1990 Constitution abolished the presidency altogether.