This paper aims to study the strategy of Croatian regionalist party HDSSB, thus moving away from electoral fortunes of regionalist parties, which is the predominant topic in the literature. A new typology of regionalist parties is introduced, relying on the two of the most salient dimensions of territorial party competition: self-government and ethnonational. Qualitative content analysis of media and self-produced content is used to empirically assess the strategy of HDSSB. The results suggest that HDSSB falls into the paradoxical ‘regionalist patriot’ category, combining strong loyalty to Croatian identity with demand for territorial restructuring and decentralization. Furthermore, the paper sheds light on the sources of this strategy, such as poverty of the region, centralization of Croatia and the role of party’s president Glavaš in the Croatian war for independence. By arguing for the ‘regionalist patriot’ category of regionalist parties, this paper aims to refocus regionalist party literature back to centralized states.
