[1] In the final days of the World War I, in the process of dissolution of Austria-Hungary, the National Council appointed Desnica a deputy member of the three-member provincial government of the former Austro-Hungarian crown land of Dalmatia.
The government consisted of Ivo Krstelj, Josip Smodlaka, and Vjekoslav Škarica, while Desnica, Prvislav Grisogono, and Jerko Machiedo were appointed their deputies.
The government administered the region in the run-up to the arrival of Allies of World War I and their occupation of the eastern Adriatic in 1918.
[2] Following the end of the World War I and the dissolution of Austria-Hungary, Desnica was appointed the head of the regional Dalmatian government within the newly-established Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and a member of the National Assembly elected on the People's Radical Party ticket.
In the interwar period, Desnica advocated the integral Yugoslavism, and joined the Chetnik movement in 1941.