Senate (Yugoslavia)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Senate ( Narodna Skupština ), based in Belgrade, was the upper house of the parliament of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia from 1931 to 1941. In addition to the senate, the bicameral parliament also had the national assembly as upper house.

General

The political situation in Yugoslavia was very unstable due to the conflicts between the nationalities. Politics was characterized by a large number of changes of government and difficult majority finding in parliament. On January 6, 1929, Parliament was dissolved by the king and a royal dictatorship was established. Parliamentary elections were held again in 1931. The parties of the individual nationalities remained banned and only all-Yugoslav parties were allowed. The parliament was no longer representative of the population.

With the royal coup, the constitution of St. Vitus was suspended. The new constitution of September 3, 1931 replaced the previous one-chamber parliament with a two-chamber system and introduced the new Senate.

The Senate consisted of men (women did not have the right to stand as a candidate) with a minimum age of 40 years (from 1922: 30 years). Another prerequisite for the right to stand as a candidate was the command of the Serbo-Croatian or Slovene language, both spoken and written, which hindered the participation of the German and Hungarian, but also the Albanian minority.

Half of the senators were appointed by the king and the other half were elected. The legal basis was the election law of March 10, 1931, which was revised on March 24, 1933.

elections

Electoral term Election date Legislative period
I. January 3, 1932 January 11, 1932 to February 6, 1935
II. 1935 June 3, 1935 to March 17, 1938
III. January 1939 February 16, 1939 to 1941

The mandate of the Senate ended with the unconditional surrender of Yugoslavia on April 17, 1941 as a result of the Balkan campaign .

Senators

Two representatives of the German minority were among the senators. Regional Bishop Philipp Popp and German studies specialist Georg Grassl were members of the Senate as senators appointed by the King .

literature

  • Mads Ole Balling: From Reval to Bucharest - Statistical-Biographical Handbook of the Parliamentarians of the German Minorities in East Central and Southeastern Europe 1919-1945, Volume 2, 2nd edition. Copenhagen 1991, ISBN 87-983829-1-8 , p. 531