Fran Folnegović

Fran Folnegović (17 February 1848 – 18 July 1903) was a Croatian politician. He was a member of the Sabor of the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia elected on the Party of Rights ticket several times. Folnegović became one of the principal members of the party. His conflict with Josip Frank led to fragmentation of the party. Folnegović advocated cooperation or merger with the Independent People's Party and strengthening of Croatia's position within Austria-Hungary.

Before politics
Fran Folnegović was born in Slanovec, at the time a village in the Podsljeme area near Zagreb, and studied law in Zagreb, Budapest, and Graz before he was appointed assistant notary in 1870 and a case clerk at the Zagreb court a year later. Due to poor health, Folnegović transferred to the same, but less demanding, position at Samobor court in 1875. Due to his good relations with bishop Josip Juraj Strossmayer, Folnegović succeeded August Šenoa as the editor of Vijenac magazine in 1882 after Šenoa's death.

Party of Rights
Folnegović was first elected a member of the Sabor of the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia in 1875. He ran in the district of Sesvete as a Party of Rights candidate endorsed by the party founder Ante Starčević. Following the elections, Folnegović was the sole Party of Rights member of the parliament. He was reelected in 1878, 1881, and 1884 in the Senj district, as well as in 1889 and 1892 in Švarča district (near Karlovac) and Sisak respectively.

In 1878, Folnegović prompted the party founder to return to politics and the helm of the Party of Rights after a seven-year hiatus. Namely, Ante Starčević retired in 1871 after failure of the Rakovica revolt led by Eugen Kvaternik. In late 1880s and early 1890s, factions began to form within the party centered on Folnegović and Josip Frank. Some prominent party figures such as the head of the Club of the Party of Rights Baron Juraj Rukavina Vidovgradski and party leader's nephew David Starčević, criticised both Folnegović and Frank for their willingness to pursue political objectives through various compromises and departure from the idea of an independent Croatian state. Specifically, both claimed that partial Croatian statehood within Austria-Hungary would be an acceptable political objective. This was a departure from Ante Starčević's political ideas expressed before the Rakovica revolt. In the course of unsuccessful negotiations on potential merger of the Party of Rights and the Independent People's Party, and adoption of the two parties' common political programme in 1894, views held by Folnegović and Frank diverged considerably. Folnegović supported the idea of the merger and accepted some elements of Yugoslavism as political goals. Frank rejected Yugoslavism entirely and would only approve of the merger if the Party of Rights leadership were to dominate the new party. The conflict between the two factions was often mediated by Ante Trumbić as a prominent member of the Party of Rights Dalmatian chapter.

Fragmentation of the party
In 1895, the Party of Rights appointed the Central Committee as the governing body. Ante Starčević was its president, but due to his illness and absence from day-to-day work, Folnegović was in control of the party as the elected vice-president. Furthermore, Folnegović ensured that his opponents were left out like Mile Starčević and Frank or appointed to lower-tier positions in the committee like Eugen Kumičić. At the same time, he helped Trumbić and Frano Supilo who supported his political views to become full members of the committee. Frank remained the main opponent of Folnegović, accusing the Central Committee as the device of betrayal of the Party of Rights. He received support from Ante Starčević for the accusations against Folnegović.

The split resulted in factions known as the Frankist faction (Frankovci) and Homeland faction (Domovinaši), named after Frank and the party newspaper Hrvatska domovina (lit. 'Croatian Homeland'). The immediate cause for the split was Folnegović's speech in which he distanced the party from violence at the occasion of the 1895 visit by Emperor Franz Joseph to Zagreb. In particular, two of the involved were Frank's sons Vladimir and Ivo. Folnegović resigned from the Central Committee and the Sabor, while Frank, supported by Ante Starčević, went on to form the Pure Party of Rights with supporting former Party of Rights members. In 1897, the Homeland faction (rebranded as the Croatian Party of Rights) formed an opposition coalition with the Independent People's Party, and Folnegović returned to politics to support the coalition.

He died in Zagreb, and is buried at the Mirogoj Cemetery.

Legacy
A neighborhood of Peščenica – Žitnjak in Zagreb is named Folnegovićevo naselje after him.