April the 12th, 2024 – We look back at the past week in Croatian politics as we head towards the parliamentary elections, scheduled for April the 17th.
Graffiti in Split calls Milanović a “russian traitor” and leads to an arrest
President Zoran Milanović is known for his bold and sometimes somewhat eyebrow-raising statements, and this has intensified when discussing the Russia-Ukraine war and accompanying factors. His statements has unfortunately led to confusion among other European and world leaders about Croatia’s position on the matter, despite the endless support given to Ukraine and the official bodies of Croatia repeatedly condemning Russia and Putin’s regime.
As Index vijesti/news reports, graffiti has appeared in Split which reads: Milanović you Russian traitor, f*ck your Dodik and Putin. But that wasn’t all, other graffiti addressed to the Croatian president appeared in several places in Split. “Milanović, come to Split if you dare, you Russian prostitute” reads another.
This is far from the first time that offensive graffiti against Milanović has appeared in Split. Earlier on, Mayor Ivica Puljak and deputy mayor Bojan Ivošević were also targeted by vandals. The police have arrested a 24-year-old man, whom they suspect of writing this controversial graffiti on the city’s walls on three occasions.
“Plenković is coming off looking worse in his verbal altercations with milanović”
As Index vijesti/news reports, political analyst Jaroslav Pecnik has discussed the ongoing feud between the prime minister and the president, and looked at the effect it has on Croatian politics as we head towards the elections.
Jaroslav Pecnik was a guest on N1 television recently, where he commented on the pre-election situation and the schedule of politicians by constituency.
“The campaign has become interesting precisely because Milanović does give it some dynamism, he provides it with some tone. Of course, many people don’t like that because the vocabulary he uses can be over the top. It seems to me that he’s having a great time, because his need to express himself like that is stronger than him – he simply has to get it all of his chest.”
According to Pecnik, Milanović at least arouses the audience’s interest in following what is happening during this tense time in Croatian politics. “If you listen to anyone else, unfortunately, it’s all just the same old banal stuff, ‘we’re this, we’re that’. When HDZ starts talking about the fight against crime and corruption, it honestly makes you burst out laughing.”
Pecnik then reflected on Andrej Plenković’s behaviour recently, believing that he comes off looking much worse than the president when it comes to their now traditional wars of words. “His PR people advised him to be different, not to argue and not to enter into verbal conflicts. He fares worse in verbal conflicts with Milanović. It isn’t that he doesn’t have any arguments and it isn’t that he doesn’t know how to respond, it’s more because he never knows what the latter will come up with. I guess that’s a good tactic in his eyes.”
Plenković refers to milanović as the “soon to be former president”
The Prime Minister recently took to boasting about Croatia’s latest credit rating: “We pulled ourselves out of the garbage Milanović left us in back 2016,” reports Index vijesti/news, before referring to Zoran Milanović as the “soon to be former president”
“I think that the first question you need to ask yourself is what kind of behaviour that is from someone who is formally the President of Croatia. He’s violating all constitutional regulations, laws, and threatening criminal prosecution. The question is how someone like that can be in a responsible position. Over these four and a half years ,we’ve seen only vulgarity, primitivism, hate speech and accusations. These are two entirely different worlds, not two Croatias. It’s a shame for Croatia that we have this kind of unconstitutional interference in the elections of someone who is soon to be the former president. He seems to just wake up every day and go crazy around all of Croatia instead of actually following the legal provisions,” stated the prime minister.
pre-election silence is looming
As is traditional in Croatia and numerous other countries, pre-election silence is looming. That means this will be the last article on Croatian politics (as well as the last video version) until the elections have passed. Maybe we’ll end up with different leadership, or more of the same old – it’s yet to be seen.
Happy voting!
