ABSTRACT
Before the Croatian-Slavonian parliamentary elections in 1897, two oppositional parties formed the so called United Opposition which was backed by large segments of the clergy. Afraid, variously, of liberalism, the Hungarian church reforms, the ideas of social democracy and the demands for secularization, the United Opposition chose antisemitism as a political means. Supported by the Catholic paper (Katolički list) and its editor in chief Stjepan Korenić, who openly called for the clergy to organize politically, they blamed Jews for all the putative threats of the modern world. For the first time an election campaign in Croatia-Slavonia had open antisemitic traits. The author shows the impact of antisemitic ideas within some parts of the Croatian opposition since the 1880s, including political Catholicism and the United Opposition, down to the turn of the century. The paper considers in addition the role of the Catholic newspaper and the press in general in the antisemitic campaign in 1897, as well as in the distribution of antisemitic ideas in the 1880s and 1890s in the Habsburg crownland Croatia-Slavonia.
issue 03 / July 2012
