Former Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor’s latest entry from her new blog Dan Nakon Jucer on February 4, 2016.
I cannot remember that any government in Croatia ever (here I include Presidents, Governments and ruling majorities in the Parliament) was so insistent in calling for unity, and at the same time was so rapidly dividing even that which was not divided in the first place.
Tim’s government had to immediately fire a minister due to a scandal (and not just any minister, but Veterans Affairs Minister who was appointed solely because of the will of the great leader), but his legacy has remained, the legacy of the traitors register which no one has yet put into the political dustbin. Indeed, former Minister Crnoja is already threatening: ‘We must completely defeat the pack of wolves”, and adds that otherwise his guys and MOST will not be able to govern. The cover where that headline was published was posted on Twitter so I was able to see the cover and the message which Crnoja certainly did not devise himself. I will not read the article about the former minister talking about packs of wolves since the headline is more than enough.
We all know exactly who and how defended him despite all the evidence. The one who appointed him explained that it was “all lies and deception”, although Crnoja himself admitted that everything he did he did for himself. In fact, he still believes in the explanation that everything was a collection of lies and deception, so he has asked the Samobor city administration to issue him a building permit for a house on the little meadow he received from the city as a gift. Mayor of Samobor later said that was fine “even though the deadline has expired”, encouraged probably by statements made by the First Deputy Prime Minister about many people living in the gray area and about deceptiveness of discussions about what is moral and what is not.
Every one of you could from your own and other people’s experiences cite many examples of how citizens would fare if they were to collide with laws and regulations or if they missed a deadline. But, when a former minister is supported and encouraged by the government he belongs to (whether or not he is still a minister), then there are no deadlines or objections, and anyone who would dare to complain would be labelled as the one who does not love Croatia.
The same will happen to anyone who questions the pardons issued by the President’s office (which Šeks has now left, like Balenović before him). The act of compassion by Kolinda Grabar Kitarović went to a convicted drug dealer who also possessed a weapon (you know how it is in that business). It is true that there were problematic pardons with prior presidents as well, but I do not remember that for their decisions other people were accused and disgraced. By dismissing Šeks, the signatory of the pardons has been freed from any responsibility, so just a day later she was already being praised by some pundits for her fast and excellent response. So, apparently, the rest doesn’t matter anymore.
As if Šeks was the one who made the final decision and as if he was the institutional body which proposed the pardons. The advisor has been expelled, the dealer has been pardoned by the decision of the dismissed adviser’s boss, and worshipers are satisfied with her. Indeed, the First Deputy Prime Minister, a dear friend, praised her decision as very “principled”. He did not explain what was principled, to pardon the dealers, to dismiss Šeks or to pardon other people who provided various services? But, the most interesting thing is the decision to pardon a dealer (the one who sells drugs to kids and destroy families) even though HDZ program from the foundation of the party is to fight against drugs. How many fiery discussions did we (and “we” applies to me while I was a dear and a sweet and a smart and a good member) have about the decriminalization of so-called “light” drugs, how many initiatives did the Katarina Zrinski Women Community (which I founded and was the first president of) organize always with the same idea: there are no good and bad drugs, all drugs are evil, and those who distribute them are enemies of our children, families and society. How many debates I had with opponents, but my viewpoint is still the same; those who sell drugs, disease and death to young people must serve their sentences.
But all this disappeared somewhere along the way. Dealers can be pardoned with no problem, which is not surprising when we remember some of the honour guests at various occasions who are pedlars and buyers of various services, but also fans of the political elite. I waited for a reaction by the Minister for Welfare and YOUTH known for fighting addictions, Bernardica J. I expected she would, driven by her experience, protest against pardoning drug dealers, but she did not and will not.
We have not received and we will not receive an explanation from KGK who is the only one authorized to make decisions on pardons (Article 98 of the Constitution). They believe that Šeks’s departure has covered two other pardon scandals, but it has not. Because Šeks only admitted that he advocated for the dealer, but not for the other pardoned people. All our questions will remain buried in blogs and columns, in seven days all this will be forgotten and the main resident of President’s office will continue saying that we are all hers. She does not have anyone who could come into her office like she entered the office of the former Agriculture Minister once. Or like she wanted to come to the Parliament but the former Speaker said it was not allowed. And then she told him he was old and that it’s time for a generational change. And then she came recently to Parliament when the new government was elected, flashed her smile and left. Although there was no constitutional authority for her to come.
I remembered once when I was an opposition MP and President was Stjepan Mesić. I criticized Mesić in Parliament because he did not know the exact number of victims found at Ovčara. I said that the President should know that. He got angry, wrote a letter to Tomčić, then Speaker of the Parliament, and asked to be protected from MPs. But Tomčić did not do anything, because he thought that the President must not intervene in the Parliament. It happened within the same constitutional system of parliamentary democracy we have now.
As they prepared traitor registers and threatened actress Nina Violić, and while the “pillars of society” humiliated a person at the head of a Croatian institution, while they chanted “Za dom spremni” in the heart of Zagreb, while one member of the European Parliament sought protection for vulgarity from ruling coalition politicians, while the former minister falsely reported the address where he was supposedly living, while the government sent to the Parliament only one law proposal and already withdrew it, while none of the promises have not yet been fulfilled, the one who pardons dealers has remained silent on all of these issues.
For the current tenant of the President’s office cannot be asked about problems and errors. You can see her at sport matches where she is cheering or when she is shaking hands with Tim Orešković (who also does not give statements), while she is hugging presidents of neighbouring countries (I avoid the word “region”), while she is shooting from rifles around the world, but you cannot ask her to comment on her decisions to pardon or on what is happening in the country. Although the President “takes care for regular and harmonized functioning and stability of state institutions”, as she likes to quote the Constitution (when it suits her).
So Šeks has sacrificed himself, admitted his guilt (although he has not made the decision) and left the President’s office. New dismissals, without explanations, will soon follow.
