 At this time Yugoslavia was still a one-party state and open manifestations of Croatian nationalism were dangerous so a new party was founded in an almost conspiratorial manner.It was only on 13 December 1989 that the governing League of Communists of Croatia agreed to legalize opposition political parties and hold free elections in the spring of 1990.On 23 January 1990 at its 14th Congress the Communist League of Yugoslavia voted to remove its monopoly on political power, but the same day effectively ceased to exist as a national party when the League of Communists of Slovenia walked out after Serbia's Slobodan Milošević blocked all their reformist proposals—the League of Communists of Croatia walked out soon after.