page_title: Croatian Democratic Union
section_title: In the opposition
hierarchical_section_title: Croatian Democratic Union / History / In the opposition
caption_attribution_description: Hrvatski: Tomislav Karamarko
context_page_description: The Croatian Democratic Union is the major conservative, centre-right political party in Croatia. It is one of the two major contemporary political parties in Croatia, along with the centre-left Social Democratic Party. It is currently the largest party in the Sabor with 60 seats. The HDZ ruled Croatia from 1990 before the country gained independence from Yugoslavia until 2000 and, in coalition with junior partners, from 2003 to 2011, and since 2016. The party is a member of the European People's Party. The HDZ's leader, Andrej Plenković, is the current Prime Minister of Croatia, having taken office following the 2016 parliamentary election.
context_section_description: After the 2011 parliamentary elections, the HDZ become the opposition after 8 years in government. The HDZ won its smallest number of votes since its founding, 563,215.
  On 20 May 2012, HDZ held a presidential election in which, a day later, Tomislav Karamarko become the winner and thus replaced Kosor as leader of the opposition. Karamarko announced that he would reestablish connections between Croatia and the Croatian diaspora.
  Karamarko earlier announced that, after a process of the detudjmanization of the HDZ, he would return to the policies of Franjo Tuđman. He also stated that he could be "neither for Ante Pavelić nor Josip Broz Tito", as both of them represented totalitarian systems. On 1 July 2013, HDZ received full member status of the European People's Party (EPP). On 11 March 2014, the HDZ and Ivo Sanader were found guilty of corruption.
caption: Tomislav Karamarko, president of the HDZ from 2012 until 2016
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot S5 IS", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Microsoft Windows Photo Gallery 6.0.6001.18000", "Image DateTime": "2009:05:30 00:01:52", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "2318", "Image Padding": "[]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "1/0", "Thumbnail YResolution": "1/0", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "7724", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "2593", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/400", "EXIF FNumber": "7/2", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "80", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2009:05:28 17:50:37", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2009:05:28 17:50:37", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "277/32", "EXIF ApertureValue": "29/8", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "29/8", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "72", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1635", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2176", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "3264", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "2448", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "7552", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "147968/5", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "4993920/169", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "51/25", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "18DA8AA24DDA43828C255D0F6130A3F4", "EXIF Padding": "[]", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "0"}