Dragan Senar (1909-1963) was a Kresimirian politician and a founding member of the nationalist party Vjetrusa. He served as a Senator for District VIII from 1952 until his death in 1963. During the final year of party founder Dominik Loncar’s life, Senar served as the de facto leader of Vjetrusa.
Political Career
Dragan Senar was part of the original slate of candidates who ran under the Vjetrusa banner in the 1952 election, the party’s inaugural contest. He was successfully elected as one of the two Senators for District VIII (Zahodecelska), becoming one of the party’s three founding members in the Assembly alongside Dominik Loncar and Zoran Banit.
As a Senator, Senar was a reliable and effective deputy to Loncar. He was known for his strong organizational skills and his deep roots in the northern districts. He championed the party’s conservative platform, advocating for a strong military and the preservation of traditional Kresimirian values. He was comfortably re-elected in the 1962 election.
De Facto Leadership
By 1962, the health of the party’s founder and leader, Dominik Loncar, was in severe decline. While Loncar chose to run for and win his Senate seat one final time, he was no longer able to manage the day-to-day operations of the party. In his stead, Senar, as his most senior and trusted colleague, took de facto control of Vjetrusa’s parliamentary operations and campaign strategy. For this brief period, he was effectively the acting leader of the party, guiding it through the 1962 election campaign.
Death
In June 1963, only a few months after the death of Dominik Loncar, tragedy struck the Vjetrusa party again. Dragan Senar was killed while attempting to mediate an industrial dispute at a manufacturing plant in the city of Cetingrad, within his home district. Reports from the incident state that he was caught in a violent confrontation between striking workers and state security officers.
His sudden death, so soon after Loncar’s, created a severe leadership vacuum within Vjetrusa. A special election was held to fill his vacant seat in District VIII, as well as the vacant seat in District VI held by Loncar. In a major blow to the party, Senar’s seat was won by Dalibor Pralinovic of the rival regionalist party, Northern Power.
Legacy
Dragan Senar’s death had a profound impact on the Vjetrusa party. With the loss of both Loncar and Senar in the same year, the party’s original leadership was wiped out. Zoran Banit had retired the previous year in 1962, and his seat was won by the Civic Renewal Front. The only remaining Vjetrusa senators was thus the newly elected Haret Trn. Consequently, Haret Trn, despite being a newcomer to the Assembly, was thrust into the leadership role, tasked with rebuilding the party from a position of sudden and unexpected weakness. Senar is thus remembered as the “leader-in-waiting” whose untimely death altered the course of his party’s history.