The prime minister of Yugoslavia () was the head of government of the Yugoslav state, from the creation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1918 until the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1992.

History

Kingdom of Yugoslavia

The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was created by the unification of the Kingdom of Serbia (Montenegro had united with Serbia five days previously, while the regions of Kosovo and Metohija, Baranya, Syrmia, Banat, Bačka and Vardar Macedonia were parts of Serbia prior to the unification) and the provisional State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs (itself formed from territories of the former Austria-Hungary) on 1 December 1918.

Until 6 January 1929, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was a parliamentary monarchy. On that day, King Alexander I abolished the Vidovdan Constitution (adopted in 1921), prorogued the National Assembly and introduced a personal dictatorship (so-called 6 January Dictatorship). He renamed the country Kingdom of Yugoslavia on 3 October 1929, and although introduced the 1931 Constitution, he continued to rule as a de facto absolute monarch until his assassination on 9 October 1934, during a state visit to France. After his assassination, parliamentary monarchy was put back in place.

The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was defeated and occupied on 17 April 1941 after the German invasion. The monarchy was formally abolished and the republic proclaimed on 29 November 1945.

SFR Yugoslavia

After the German invasion and fragmentation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the Partisan resistance in occupied Yugoslavia formed a deliberative council, the Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation of Yugoslavia (AVNOJ) in 1942. On 29 November 1943 the AVNOJ proclaimed the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia, and appointed the National Committee for the Liberation of Yugoslavia (NKOJ), led by Prime Minister Josip Broz Tito, as its government. Josip Broz Tito was quickly recognized by the Allies at the Tehran Conference, and the royalist government-in-exile in London was pressured into agreeing on a merge with the NKOJ. In order to facilitate this, Ivan Šubašić was appointed by the King to head the London government.

For a period, Yugoslavia had two recognized prime ministers and governments (which both agreed to formally merge as soon as possible): Josip Broz Tito leading the NKOJ in occupied Yugoslavia, and Ivan Šubašić leading the King's government-in-exile in London. With the Tito-Šubašić Agreement in 1944, the two prime ministers agreed that the new joint government would be led by Tito. After the liberation of Yugoslavia's capital Belgrade in October 1944, the joint government was officially formed on 7 March 1945, with Josip Broz Tito as the prime minister.

After the war, elections were held ending in an overwhelming victory for Tito's People's Front. The new parliament deposed King Peter II on 29 November 1945, and declared a Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia (in 1963, the state was renamed Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia). The government was first headed by a prime minister up to 14 January 1953, when major decentralization reforms reorganized the government into the Federal Executive Council chaired by a President, who was still usually called "Prime Minister" in non-Yugoslav sources; constitutionally, the post was indistinguishable from the new office of President of the Republic, the latter of which would be held exclusively by Tito. In 1963, the President of the Federal Executive Council and the President of the Republic became separate posts, with the individual presidency replaced by a collective presidency in 1971, though in practice the individual presidency survived until Tito's death in 1980.

Five out of nine heads of government of Yugoslavia in this period were of Croatian ethnicity. Three were from Croatia itself (Josip Broz Tito, Mika Špiljak, and Milka Planinc), while two were Bosnian Croats (Branko Mikulić and Ante Marković). Ante Marković however, though a Croat from Bosnia and Herzegovina by birth, was a politician of Croatia like Špiljak and Planinc, serving (at different times) as both prime minister and president of the presidency of that federal unit.

List

Portrait Name Nationality Term of office Party Election Cabinet Notes Took office Left office Time in office In the Kingdom of Yugoslavia Nikola Pašić Serb 1 December 1918 22 December 1918 People's Radical Party – Pašić XII 1 Stojan Protić Serb 22 December 1918 16 August 1919 People's Radical Party – Protić I 2 Ljubomir Davidović Serb 16 August 1919 19 February 1920 Democratic Party – Davidović I (1) Stojan Protić Serb 19 February 1920 16 May 1920 People's Radical Party – Protić II 3 Milenko Vesnić Serb 16 May 1920 1 January 1921 People's Radical Party 1920 Vesnić 4 Nikola Pašić Serb 1 January 1921 28 July 1924 People's Radical Party 1923 Pašić XIII–XIV–XV–XVI–XVII–XVIII–XIX (2) Ljubomir Davidović Serb 28 July 1924 6 November 1924 Democratic Party – Davidović II (4) Nikola Pašić Serb 6 November 1924 8 April 1926 People's Radical Party 1925 Pašić XX–XXI–XXII 5 Nikola Uzunović Serb 8 April 1926 17 April 1927 People's Radical Party – Uzunović I–II 6 Velimir Vukićević Serb 17 April 1927 28 July 1928 People's Radical Party 1927 Vukićević I–II 7 Anton Korošec Slovene 28 July 1928 7 January 1929 Slovene People's Party – Korošec 8 Petar Živković Serb 7 January 1929 4 April 1932 Yugoslav Radical Peasants' Democracy 1931 Živković 9 Vojislav Marinković Serb 4 April 1932 3 July 1932 Yugoslav Radical Peasants' Democracy – Marinković 10 Milan Srškić Serb 3 July 1932 27 January 1934 Yugoslav Radical Peasants' Democracy – Srškić I–II (5) Nikola Uzunović Serb 27 January 1934 22 December 1934 Yugoslav National Party – Uzunović III 11 Bogoljub Jevtić Serb 22 December 1934 24 June 1935 Yugoslav National Party 1935 Jevtić Yugoslav Radical Union 12 Milan Stojadinović Serb 24 June 1935 5 February 1939 Yugoslav Radical Union 1938 Stojadinović I–II–III 13 Dragiša Cvetković Serb 5 February 1939 27 March 1941 Yugoslav Radical Union – Cvetković I–II Rehabilitovan Dragiša Cvetković In the Yugoslav government-in-exile 14 Dušan Simović Serb 27 March 1941 11 January 1942 Independent – Simović 15 Slobodan Jovanović Serb 11 January 1942 26 June 1943 Independent – Jovanović I-II 16 Miloš Trifunović Serb 26 June 1943 10 August 1943 People's Radical Party – Trifunović 17 Božidar Purić Serb 10 August 1943 8 July 1944 Independent – Purić 18 Ivan Šubašić Croat 8 July 1944 7 March 1945 Croatian Peasant Party – Šubašić Lampe, John R.; Yugoslavia as history: twice there was a country; Cambridge University Press, 2000 Ramet, Sabrina P.; The three Yugoslavias: state-building and legitimation, 1918-2005; Indiana University Press, 2006 In the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia/Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia 19 Josip Broz Tito Croat 7 March 1945 29 June 1963 Communist Party of Yugoslavia 19451950195319581963 Tito I–II–III–IV–V–VI League of Communists of Yugoslavia 20 Petar Stambolić Serb 29 June 1963 16 May 1967 League of Communists of Yugoslavia – Stambolić 21 Mika Špiljak Croat 16 May 1967 18 May 1969 League of Communists of Yugoslavia – Špiljak 22 Mitja Ribičič Slovene 18 May 1969 30 July 1971 League of Communists of Yugoslavia 1969 Ribičič 23 Džemal Bijedić Bosniak 30 July 1971 18 January 1977 League of Communists of Yugoslavia 1974 Bijedić I-II 24 Veselin Đuranović Montenegrin 18 January 1977 16 May 1982 League of Communists of Yugoslavia 1978 Đuranović 25 Milka Planinc Croat 16 May 1982 15 May 1986 League of Communists of Yugoslavia 1982 Planinc 26 Branko Mikulić Croat 15 May 1986 16 March 1989 League of Communists of Yugoslavia 1986 Mikulić 27 Ante Marković Croat 16 March 1989 20 December 1991 League of Communists of Yugoslavia – Marković Union of Reform Forces of Yugoslavia Aleksandar Mitrović Serb 20 December 1991 14 July 1992 Socialist Party of Serbia – Marković

Timeline

See also Deputy Prime Minister of Yugoslavia List of heads of state of Yugoslavia Prime Minister of Serbia and Montenegro Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina Prime Minister of Croatia Prime Minister of Montenegro Prime Minister of North Macedonia Prime Minister of Serbia Prime Minister of Slovenia

References