Frano Supilo

Croatian politician and journalist (1870–1917)

Frano Supilo (30 November 1870 – 25 September 1917) was a Croatian politician and journalist. He participated in the debates leading to the formation of Yugoslavia as a member of the Yugoslav Committee. The author, R. A. Stradling, calls him "one of the most capable Croatian politicians ever."

Supilo was born in Cavtat on 30 November 1870. He completed elementary education in Dubrovnik. He had to drop out of naval high school because of a lack of funds, and instead finished a two year school of agriculture with Frano Gondola. He traveled around Dalmatian vineyards educating wine growers on peronospora. In 1890, he started work at Crvena Hrvatska ('Red Croatia') in Dubrovnik. Also, in 1900 he became the editor of Novi list in Rijeka.

Along with Ante Trumbić and Josip Smodlaka, he was one of the creators of both the Rijeka Resolution; and the Croat Serb Coalition, both in 1905. He was also responsible for Croat Serb Coalition's rise to power. Supilo's Rijeka and Zagreb faze have historically and continuously been analysed only when the studies and books have started to appear after the fall of SFRJ that is because up until then his work has been continuously treated as a visionary activity towards his hearts agenda, and even back then in Yugoslavia (communistic), a serious dream of the creation of a united country of Croats and Serbs. A good example of the newest appreciation of Supilo's political activity is a series of shorter texts published in the magazine Kolo, 1998., nm. 8. In short notes Supilo has taken the traditional right wing politics and made a radical turn based on two important entries: ideological and pragmatically ideological. on which the Coalition has won, Supilo was chosen as a representative in the Croatian Parliament and became the leading person of the Coalition. When the Hungarian parliament in spring 1907. voted the Trainline Pragmati, in which the Hungarian language is voted as the official language on all train lines in Croatia, Supilo translated the Croatian disagreement to the Hungarian parliament and led a difficult campaign against the Hungarian ban Pavlo Rauch, and started to propose essential constitutional questions about the position of Croatia. His radical approach brings him into a conflict with the leadership of the Coalition, which wanted a more careful politic, in order not to lose the ability of returning to power. Supilo was aiming for Croatia, with its own politics, to step up as the head of South Slaven Austro Hungarian in the fight for their union while the Serbian part of the Coalition was for appropriating Croatia to the Kingdom of Serbia, which in reality meant turning Croatia into a Serbian political appendage. His attitude struck a serious reaction in Austrian circles. Even though the deceits against him have subsequently been exposed, Supilo stepped out of the Coalition in order to ease its position; the Coalitions then agreed to a compromised way of solving conflict, which led to the fall of ban Rauch, as well as the fall of the Coalition pact with the unnamed ban Nikola Tomasevic. The organization then moved to London, England in 1915.

His death was immortalized by Krleža in his Ballads of Petrica Kerempuh: "Sopilovog Frana,/kem serce pregrizla horvacka je rana" (Frano Supilo, whose heart was eaten by the Croatian wound). Novi list, still the most popular daily newspaper in Rijeka to this day, credits Frano Supilo as the newspaper's founder in its masthead with the words, "Utemeljio Frano Supilo 2. siječnja 1900." ("Founded by Frano Supilo on January 2nd 1900"). A bronze bust of Supilo is located outside the newspaper's headquarters building in Rijeka's Mlaka neighborhood.