In 1990 all planets aligned to make the Dinamo Zagreb - Red Star Belgrade derby the most important match in the history of Yugoslavia The 1980's were a harsh decade for the Eastern Bloc: Baltic republics were pushing for independence, the Caucasus descended into violence, the USSR started to fall apart, the Berlin Wall finally fell, the Romanian revolution happened and Yugoslavia, despite not being aligned with the Soviet Union, saw increasing ethnic tensions and rising movements that pushed for a more federal approach or independence of its members altogether. In this tense environment the League of Communists of Croatia, in an emergency meeting, decided that the next elections would be free and multi-party: the first of their kind since 1938 in the country. A two-round system of voting was defined: a candidate needed to receive 50% of the votes from at least 33.3% of the constituency to win election, and if no candidate reached the required amount of votes, a second round of vo...
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