In 1896 Michele Maylender, claiming greater autonomy from the centralizing Hungarian executive of Dezső Bánffy, founded the Autonomist Party.
The initiative was successful and in 1897 Maylender was elected mayor, succeeding to the late Giovanni de Ciotta, who held the position continuously from 1872 to 1897.
It culminated when the Municipal council of Fiume was dissolved and was finally replaced by a Royal Commissioner, the ministerial adviser Antonio de Valentsits in 1898.
As the Croats, they denied the existence of a unitary Hungarian state but instead it was the “Holy Crown of the Lands of St. Stephen”, united under the sceptre of the House of Habsburg.
In the analysis done by La Difesa and reported on several articles it was inadmissible for Fiume to be treated as a colony since its status within the Habsburg Empire or the Hungarian Kingdom was comparable to that of Hungary.
While the continental free cities lost their rights and privileges "disappearing politically" not so those of the Hanseatic league such as Lübeck, Bremen and Hamburg.
When in 1901 Kálmán Széll succeeded to Dezső Bánffy as Hungarian Prime Minister he seriously tried to restore a positive climate in the city, and Maylender was once again elected to the office of mayor.
In the new climate the majority of the Autonomist Party thought "it was time to send an Italian" (the office was held by count Lajos Batthyány) and it addressed Maylender.
The clash between Liberalism and radicalism in Hungary, was since the 1850s reflected also in Fiume with Gaspare Matcovich as the local leader of the Kossuthists and Giovanni de Ciotta of the Deákist faction.
According to Zanella, the inhabitants of Fiume are called Fiumani but are themselves composed of "three nationalities": the Italians that is the autonomists who were for centuries the "old dominators of the land" but also the Croats and the Hungarians.
Andrea Ossoinack the son of Luigi (who committed suicide in 1902), announced a secession from the Autonomist Party, remarking that all the nationalities (and thereby also the Croatian) in Fiume had the right to be represented, and the need for a closer collaboration with Hungary, precondition for the economical development of the port city.
Andrea Ossoinack from a champion of the militant autonomists (as was his father) will gradually position himself as a reliable political partner for the Hungarians against the Kossuthist drift.
The former "united opposition" (with whom Zanella sided) was allowed to form a government only after it gave up its major demands for an independent Hungarian army and tariff system.
The pact concluded (8 April 1906) between the Coalition and the crown paved the way for the Agreement, reached in October 1907 thanks chiefly to the sobering of Hungarian opinion by a severe economic crisis.
[7] Károly Khuen-Héderváry, a consummate political leader, who as Ban (title) had previously ruled Croatia for twenty years from 1883 to 1903, now on 17 January 1910, become head of the Hungarian executive.
[7] On 30 November 1910 István gróf Wickenburg de Capelló, took office as acting governor but the official ceremony instead at the municipal hall was celebrated at the cathedral church.
Albert Appony claimed that the preservation of Fiuman autonomy was a strategic interest of Hungary since any action in the opposite direction would have given greater chances to Croatian propaganda to succeed.
[7] The reactions in Fiume were immediate: on 16 December 1910 – at the session of the Rappresentanza, Zanella exploits the moment and fiercely attacks Maylender with a lengthy speech.
The ongoing division within the Autonomists successfully infiltrated by Hungarian authorities produced its effects: on 2 April 1911 – a New party named Lega autonoma was formed whose head is the ex podestà Francesco Vio.
Antonio Vio junior, is candidate from the «Lega autonoma» and the Hungarian labour party, headed by count Istvan Tisza.
Several former members of the Associazione Autonoma are now in its ranks: including Vio, Ossoinack, Mohovich, and others now lined up with Governor Wickemburg and Khuen-Hedervary.
[7] In the years before the outbreak of the Great War it is clear that the Hungarian government under the lead of Khuen who effectively put into control Croatia attempted to do the same in Fiume.
The central government, with Khuen as the Prime Minister of Hungary succeeded to put Fiuman politics under complete control, and that already before the Great War broke.
Although Zanella showed a clear will to compromise with the Hungarians essentially in an anti Croatian fashion, the King Franz Joseph explicitly refused to accept his election as podestà of Fiume on 10 April 1914.
Frustration was growing, fuelled by those Fiumani who within the Giovine Fiume were already embracing irredentism, questioning the traditional strategy of fiuman politics, playing among the two great Hungarian parties.
The war itself did not struck Fiume, the city reported a single aerial attack performed by an Italian Zeppelin (Città di Ferrara), that bombed the torpedo works and some port facilities.
The papers that marked the age as the Voce del Popolo of Zanella and the Novi List of Supilo ceased with their publications since both editors were now in exile.
The conclusions of the report provide an interesting evaluation of the real extent of autonomy: The political position of Fiume in the Provisory was the outcome of the struggle between Italians and the Slavs for the possession of the City.
The autonomy was only a fiction masked with the insistence on the Italian language and culture – the italianità, that was seen as the way for realising the Hungarian plans for Fiume, after the Great War.