Kukuriku Coalition (2011–2014) The idea of a joint party list of the main centre-left parties, the
Social Democratic Party of Croatia (SDP) and
Croatian People's Party (HNS-LD), was discussed in the
2007 general election, however ultimately each party contested the election separately. The election resulted in
HDZ forming a
Government led by
Ivo Sanader and SDP and HNS-LD remaining in
Opposition. After the resignation of
Prime Minister Sanader in 2009, SDP, HNS-LD and the
Istrian Democratic Assembly (IDS) started discussing the possibility of contesting the
2011 parliamentary election more extensively. On 23 November 2010 the three parties along with
HSU signed a declaration "Alliance for Change" officially confirming their intention of a joint appearance in the next election. On 15 September 2011, the coalition launched their manifesto for the 2011 general election called "Plan 21" in Zagreb.
People's Coalition (2016–2019) On 9 July 2016, Zoran Milanović announced that the SDP, HNS-LD and
Croatian Party of Pensioners (HSU) would form the '''People's Coalition'
(Narodna koalicija'') for the
2016 parliamentary election, adding that the coalition would be ideologically far-reaching and diverse, as it also encompasses the centre-right
Croatian Peasant Party (HSS). The three centre-left parties previously formed the
Croatia is Growing coalition with the
Croatian Labourists – Labour Party and two smaller parties winning 56 seats in the November
2015 parliamentary election, while the HSS contested the elections as part of the
Patriotic Coalition which won 59 seats (2 of those going to HSS itself). One of HSS's two parliamentary representatives and former leader
Branko Hrg left the party after the party joined the coalition. On the other hand,
Authentic Croatian Peasant Party and
Croatian Peasant Party of Radić Brothers which had more than 6.000 members decided to merge into HSS after they split from it in 2007 dissatisfied with HSS's cooperation with the
Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ).
Restart Coalition (2020–2023) On 9 May 2020, the SDP, HSS, HSU,
Civic-Liberal Alliance (Glas) and Power – Party of People's and Civic Engagement (SNAGA), launched a joint electoral programme and announced the beginning of their campaign for the
2020 parliamentary election. Despite originally intending for chairman
Peđa Grbin to be the prime-ministerial candidate, the SDP organized a press conference on Friday 15 March 2024, where Zoran Milanović, the acting president of Croatia, made a surprise announcement of his candidature both on the SDP's electoral list for parliament and for the function of SDP's prime minister as an independent. The announcement was concluded with the line "The rivers of justice are coming, they will overflow come spring", taken from
Jura Stublić's song
Rijeke pravde (). Milanović intended to resign from the office of president before being sworn into the position of prime minister, thus circumventing the constitutional prohibition of the President of Croatia from participating in party politics or holding another public office—something that Grbin preemptively inquired about via a letter to the
Constitutional Court of Croatia. The move was, however, first scrutinized by constitutional experts and political opposition over the following weekend, claiming the candidacy was "unconstitutional", with acting prime minister, Andrej Plenković, calling it a "mini ''coup d'etat''". After convening on Monday 18 March 2024, the Constitutional Court delivered a non-unanimous verdict (with 2 justices voting against, and 2 refusing to vote), opining that Milanović's candidacy from the position of president of the Republic was unconstitutional and warning the SDP against promoting him as part of the campaign or as a political candidate for as long as he remains president, lest the elections be postponed or their results rejected. Consequently, Grbin affirmed they will comply with the verdict, but decided to rename the coalition to
Rivers of Justice in reference to Milanović's announcement. Both Grbin and Milanović claimed that the court's verdict is an "attempt at a
coup" that "certain individuals" organized by relying on personal connections to the president of the Constitutional Court. Milanović later announced that he still intends to become the prime minister "legally and courteously", but refused to reveal how, emphasizing that a vote for any party other than the HDZ is "good". In reaction to Milanović's planned candidacy, three parties left the negotiations for the coalition: RF, Focus and the IDS. Although the SDP decided to stop negotiations with them due to unnamed disagreements, the RF cited political and ideological disagreements with Milanović that would have caused them to drop out of the coalition regardless. On the other hand, Focus and the IDS decided to back away mainly due to disagreements with the candidacy itself, arguing that they do not wish to back unconstitutional political maneuvers, as well as due to miscellaneous disagreements with other practices of the SDP, such as aggressive political rhetoric and generally poor negotiation. A former director of the
Croatian Bureau of Statistics, Marko Krištof, calculated how many more mandates could a left-liberal alliance consisting of Rivers of Justice,
We can!, Focus, and the Workers' Front have gained had they ran in the elections together, on the condition they had received the same number of votes as they did individually: We Can! would have benefited the most, with four more mandates, followed by the Workers' Front with two mandates, as opposed to none, and Focus with one additional mandate. ==Member parties==