Last modified: 2008-11-29 by ivan sache
Keywords: vojvodina | democratic league of croats in vojvodina | demokratski savez hrvata u vojvodini | letters: dshv (white);letters: dshv (blue) |
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![[DLCV flag]](../images/r/rs}dshv1.gif)
Flag of Democratic League of Croats in Vojvodina - Image by Tomislav Todorović, 16 February 2008
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Democratic League of Croats in Vojvodina (Demokratski savez Hrvata u Vojvodini - in further text, official abbreviation in English: DLCV) is the oldest and most influential party of Croat minority in Vojvodina.
Tomislav Todorović, 16 February 2008
The present-day flag of the party is horizontally divided red-white-blue with the party emblem in the centre: a red and white chequered shield with inner white and outer red fimbriations and the party name initials, DSHV, inscribed in white on the red fields in the second and fourth rows. The flag proportions are 1:2. An image of the flag design (although with letters fimbriated blue and in a different typeface) has first appeared on the party website in 2004, but the flag itself seems not to have been in use until 2007: the first photos showing its use which I saw date from 26 October 2007, from a press conference of the party and from the founding convention of the Croat Women's Forum "Cro-Femina" (Hrvatski forum žena "Cro-Femina"), the women's organization of the DLCV; reports from both events were published in the Hrvatska riječ ("Croat Word") magazine, #245, 2 November 2007.
Tomislav Todorović, 16 February 2008
![[DLCV former flag]](../images/r/rs}dshv2.gif)
Former flag of Democratic League of Croats in Vojvodina - Image by Tomislav Todorović, 16 February 2008
The former flag of DLCV was also horizontally divided red-white-blue, but with proportions 2:3 (rarely 1:2) and the former version of the party emblem in the centre: a white and red chequered shield (the opposite of the present-day pattern), slightly smaller and with a bit simpler shape than the present-day one, fimbriated red and charged with blue letters DSHV, inscribed on the white fields in the second and fourth rows. An image of the flag design has first appeared on the party website in early 2001 and it was probably not adopted much earlier, because the use of that version of the emblem before October 2000 would have certainly be condemned by the then regime as an alleged derivation of the coat of arms of the Axis-puppet Independent State of Croatia and brought a lot of problems to the party, but no such accusations seem to have ever emerged. Its last appearance that I have recorded was at the 6th Regular Convention of the party in 2006 (photo gallery currently not available online), although the new flag design had already appeared in the public (including the website as well), so it must have been replaced with the present-day flag during 2007.
Variants of the former flag
![[DLCV former flag variant]](../images/r/rs}dshv2a.gif)
Variant of the former flag of Democratic League of Croats in Vojvodina - Image by Tomislav Todorović, 16 February 2008
A variant of the same flag with a different form of the shield was used at the 3rd Extraordinary Convention of the party on 20 July 2003, as shown by Hrvatska riječ, #26, 25 July 2003, and at the Unification Convention on 29 February 2004, when the Croat People's Alliance (Hrvatski narodni savez), another Croat minority party, had merged into the DLCV, as shown by Hrvatska riječ, #57, 5 March 2004.
![[DLCV former flag variant]](../images/r/rs}dshv2b.gif)
Variant of the former flag of Democratic League of Croats in Vojvodina - Image by Tomislav Todorović, 16 February 2008
Another variant, with the same shape of the shield as the previous one, but larger and separated from red and blue fields with an
additional white fimbriation, has also appeared at the
above-mentioned Unification Convention, as shown by Hrvatska riječ, #57, 5 March 2004 and the report from the Unification Convention at the Croatian Television website (file no longer online); this flag had proportions 1:2.
It seems that different copies of the party flag were made without a definite construction sheet, as Hrvatska riječ has published
numerous reports about the party activities during
2004, and the photos were showing all the described
variants. However, it seems that the variant with the
shield similar in form to the present-day one had eventually prevailed,
because the photo galleries from the website (currently
not available online) were showing mostly that
variant, especially at more recent events.
Tomislav Todorović, 16 February 2008
![[DLCV first flag]](../images/r/rs}dshv3.gif)
First flag of Democratic League of Croats in Vojvodina - Image by Tomislav Todorović & Mladen Mijatov, 18 February 2008
The first flag of DLCV was adopted in August or September 1990
and its first photos were published in Glas ravnice
("Voice of the Plain"), the party bulletin, issue #2 of
October 1990. Its field was composed of blue, yellow
and green triangles, yellow in the centre, based at
the hoist edge and with the top at the centre of the
fly edge, blue at the top and green at the bottom;
party emblem was on the yellow field: a simple white
and red chequered shield, fimbriated red and charged
with large white letters DSHV, fimbriated blue and
arranged symmetrically around the central white field.
The emblem was adopted at the founding convention of
the party on 15 July 1990 and shown in the photos from
the event published in Glas ravnice, issue #1 of
August 1990 (the flag was not shown on those photos,
so it must have been adopted later). An article about
the party emblem from issue #2, p. 9, mentioned the
popular belief (with no historical evidence, though)
that the white-red pattern was that of the peace-time
variant of the coat of arms of Croatia. That is probably the
reason why this emblem was kept even after the coat of arms of the Republic of Croatia was eventually fixed to the
red-white pattern by the end of 1990: the party
posters painted like this flag (including the
white-red emblem), announcing the founding of local
party organization, were seen in the town of Novi Sad in May 1991. The field colours were meant to represent
Vojvodina and were originally introduced by the League
of Socialdemocrats of Vojvodina (LSV), which was also
founded in July 1990 and was a very close ally of the
DLCV at that time (both parties were in the same
coalition for the parliamentary elections in Serbia in
December 1990), but the DLCV used much lighter shades
of the colours than the LSV. The flag with this
version of the emblem must have been replaced with the
succeeding version shortly after the war in Yugoslavia
had begun (June 1991), because the DLCV had already
been accused several times by the regime's
propagandists for using an emblem too similar to the
coat of arms of the Independent State of Croatia.
![[DLCV first flag variant]](../images/r/rs}dshv4.gif)
Variant of the first flag of Democratic League of Croats in Vojvodina - Image by Tomislav Todorović & Mladen Mijatov, 18 February 2008
Another version of the same flag, charged with a different emblem, was seen in November 1992, in TV-reports from the campaign for parliamentary elections which took place in December that year. The emblem was a red and white chequered shield (the opposite of the previous and the same as the present-day one), fimbriated red and with the central row of fields replaced with a white bar, which was charged with blue letters DSHV (darker than the blue field of the flag). The emblem had the same shape as the one used previously and a bit smaller size than it. That was the only occasion on which I saw this flag, so I have no informations about the date of its withdrawal from the use, but it is quite possible that it was used all the time until the tricolour flag with the white-red emblem was adopted.
Tomislav Todorović, 18 February 2008