euro|topics - Elections in Croatia

Main focus of Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Elections in Croatia

Croatia held its parliamentary elections Sunday November 25th. According to the preliminary results, the old Prime Minister Ivo Sanader will also be the new one: his conservative HDZ party will probably hold 66 of the 153 parliamentary seats, while the Social Democrat opposition takes 56. The search for a new coalition partner has begun. What does this mean for the reform process in Croatia?

Frankfurter Rundschau - Germany

In Nobert Mappes-Niediek's opinion Ivo Sanader's election victory was well-deserved: "Over the past few years this convinced Christian Democrat has managed to turn a lobby of warlords and profiteers, provincial feudalists and privatisation pirates into a party fit for Europe." However he points out that, unlike the Social Democrats, Sanader lacks skilled politicians for his government. "This situation screams out for a grand coalition. And indeed, this is President Stipe Mesic's preferred solution. If it comes to this Mesic would have to coordinate the rivalling partners and spend his final years in office as a kind of guardian prime minister. This, in turn, wouldn't be at all good for Croatia, warns Zarko Puhovski, an academic and human rights activist and the highest moral authority among the opposition in Zagreb. Pluralism, parliamentarianism and the changeover of power still haven't been accepted by all." (27/11/2007)

Delo - Slovenia

Peter Potocnik takes Croatia's old and presumed new prime minister to task. "During the election campaign the current prime minister and leader of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) managed to iron out some of the creases in his policies and return to a nationalistic, root-oriented rhetoric. Moreover, he made his mark as a master of the art of buying votes. He paid off what was owed to pensioners, gave the Church financial support, opened new roads and hospitals and promised free school books. He simply couldn't imagine spending the next four years in the opposition. ... Sanader has also managed to rid the political scene of right-wing start-ups. In the style of [the first Croat president and autocrat] Franjo Tudjman, he proclaimed that everybody knew who would win and added his own slogan: 'Let's take the lead'. Really, Croatia hasn't changed one bit." (27/11/2007)

Der Standard - Austria

"Sanader's victory has a drawback: it is based above all on the votes of Croats living abroad, in particular the more than 75,000 Croats living in Bosnia and Herzegovina," writes Josef Kirchengast. Even Croats who have lived abroad for generations are permitted to vote in Croatia's elections. "Sanader defends this dual voting right, which is unique in Europe, pointing out that the Bosnian Croats were a great help in the civil war from 1991 to 1995. In essence this is a nationalistic argument, but it also reflects the realities of the post-Yugoslavia region. That the Bosnian Croats have maintained such a calm stance in the current Bosnia conflict - Serb resistance to the reforms of the international delegate - has a lot to do with their ties to their 'mother country' and its bid for EU membership." (27/11/2007)

Neue Zürcher Zeitung - Switzerland

"Regardless of whether Sanader's party or the Social Democrats form the new government, the task of leading Croatia into the EU will be a difficult one despite the undeniable political and economic progress of recent times," writes Cyrill Stieger. "The gap between theory and practice is still very great in Croatia. Laws are not carried through and applied. Legal security is totally inadequate and the state administration is not up to European standards. The justice system is in need of radical reform and the widespread corruption and cronyism, whose tentacles reach right up to the state leadership, must be dealt with aggressively. If all this is not achieved, the longed-for EU membership will be a long time coming." (27/11/2007)

» To the complete press review of Tuesday, November 27, 2007

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