Brodski odvjetnik Filip Markotić – ‘desni’ haesesovac?
Filip Markotić, lawyer from Brod – a ‘right-wing’ HSS member?

Summary/Abstract: Filip Markotić, a lawyer and politician, was active in Slavonski Brod since 1922. He immediately took up politics, first as a member of the Croatian Union, and then, from 1924 on (or from 1925 at the latest) as member of the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS). On account of the departure from HSS of a group of dissidents gathered around Nikola Nikić, he made rapid progress and as soon as 1927 he was elected as people’s delegate. During the dictatorship of January 6, he was locked up on several occasions. After the reinstitution of political life he was chosen delegate twice (in 1935 and 1938), and he performed his party duties with due diligence (but no more than that). His position in the party and his influence on the authorities in Slavonski Brod were put into question during the crisis in the HSS (1939-1940). Caught in conflict, first, with the left-wing group of HSS members, and then with ‘the displeased’ of various ideological backgrounds (and the so-called Frankovci), he did not manage to maintain his political clout. However, research made questionable his classification among the radical right-wing stream of HSS, as has been assumed so far, i.e. even to the pro-ustasha current within the HSS, since there is nothing in the materials to corroborate that claim. At the time of upheaval in 1941, he was heading special police units for four days (The HSS National Guard was keeping order), and he retired from this duty immediately after the arrival of the German armies. During the war he was forced to enter into the Parliament of the Independent State of Croatia because his communist son had been imprisoned and because of his Jewish wife, but he was sympathetic to the Maček line. Still, after the war he was sentenced to 16 year’s hard labor. After the appeal filed to the Supreme Court the sentence was mitigated to 10 years, but he died in 1946. The life of Filip Markotić, the people’s delegate of the HSS, the lawyer and politician, who never rose beyond his local role, is documented in a range of bits of news from the press and the archives. However, these bits and pieces are enough to compile a relatively satisfactory traditional biography. We have knowledge of the key dates and moments in his political career, of his rise to power and success, of his problems and the tragic end. However, this factographic overview also leaves many questions to be answered by the future researchers of history.

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