Politics
The country is a parliamentary democracy. The last general elections were held at the end of 2007, in which no single party won a majority. After negotiations, the HDZ (the Croatian Democratic Union) leader and incumbent Prime Minister, Ivo Sanader, convinced other MPs that he should get the mandate to form the new government. His coalition partners were the HSS (Croatian Peasant Party), the Croatian-Serb Party and representatives of some minority groups in the country.

On 1st July 2009, Sanader made the surprise decision to step down as Prime Minister and withdraw entirely from politics. No real reason was given for his move; it was widely expected that he would continue as PM until standing for election as President in 2010. He has been replaced by his deputy, Jadranka Kosor, who became the new Prime Minister of Croatia (and the first female PM in its history) on 6th July 2009.

Presidential elections were held in December 2009 and January 2010 to elect a new president following two terms by President Stipe Mesic. No one candidate (from 12) managed to obtain more than 50% of the vote in first round of elections in December 2009, so a second round took place on 10th January 2010 between the top two candidates - Ivo Josipovic (Social Democratic Party) and Milan Bandic (Independent). Josipovic came away with 64% of the vote and became the new - and third - President of Croatia.

Croatia received an invitation to join NATO in 2008, and officially became a member on 1 April 2009.

EU membership negotiations are proceeding slowly. In the opinion of many experts, Croatia has no chance of joining before 2011.