A guest editorial this week on the events of January 22, 2016 and the immediate aftermath of the new government taking power in Croatia. The article is under my name (the website system requires a name), but if written by a very successful businessman in Croatia who preferred to remain anonymous in this uncertain days of the proposed Registry of Traitors of Croatian National Interests.
January is usually the most depressing month in Croatia. If you would believe it, a (pseudo)scientist even calculated that the third Monday of January is the most depressing day of the year. They even named it! Blue Monday! Well, Blue Monday is nothing compared with Black Friday, January 22 of the two thousand and sixteenth year of our Lord. That is the day that Croatian parliament sworn in the new government. Plenty has been said and written over the past few days about it. Mostly without any arguments, very shallow and one sided.
This article is probably no different. The only thing I can’t accept is that criticizing the new government means in any way support for the opposition or the government that held the reins over the past four years. Absolutely not! Those two things are not related, and whoever does not accept that should stop reading this any further!
That being said these are strange days to be an atheist or non-Croat in Croatia. The government is composed almost entirely of practicing Roman Catholics. It could be argued that it is in its essence representation of the majority of Croatian population. However, if that is the case should we abandon the elections all together and let the church take over?
One minister is already promising to include the church in his decision-making process and is delivering on that promise as he entered his newly appointed post followed by Bishop of Dioceses of Sisak. Another new minister is a former nun, and her previous choices should not be questioned at all. However, the level of excitement over her posting and the way that the previous minister in that position is being labeled is worrisome. It feels very triumphalist, and I don’t see any reason for celebration.
The unusual promises of some of the newly appointed ministers or parliament officials do not stop there. Abortion prohibition, removal of the same sex life long partnership law and similar are just some that have been mentioned over the past few days. While a lot of it is just used to keep the public entertained and less inclined to dwell on the catastrophic economic situation, which has always been the preferred sport of Croatian governments, over time one has to wonder what is this new majority and its rule bringing. Certainly a troubling conundrum to the all minorities and to all of those who value individual rights over the rule of the majority.
Strange days to be a business professional as well. The new Prime Minister hails from one of the most prestigious global pharmaceutical companies. He is well educated, well-spoken (in English at least) and is, according to all of the qualifications, a very successful manager. Yet, he opens his power point presentation of the new government with a quote from General George S. Patton, who was, albeit a very successful WWII general, known by his nicknames “Bandito” and “Old Guts and Blood” due to his blood thirstiness. He was also an anti-Semite which can hardly do down well with the PM’s previous employer, an Israeli company.
However, leaving Patton’s belief’s aside, choosing a militaristic leader’s quote for your opening statement as a new PM of a country that has one of Europe’s worst economie,s and being brought to solve exactly that problem as a financial specialist is least to say strange. If Patton was just something that Mr Orešković used to break the ice, then the page with the empty table of the dates and plans for the new government that the new PM just quickly skipped over is nothing short of major fuck up! Myself, as a business professional with almost fifteen years of private and corporate experience can attest to that.
Promising to bring Croatia in top 50 countries in the world according to “doing business index” with Croatia being in place 39 and 40 in 2013. and 2014. respectively is something that was not a lapsus linguae but part of the plan for the next four years. The plan which was full of corporate phraseology that sounded like it just came out of corporate bullshit generator. One of the few real targets was the one about the doing business index.
Strange days lie ahead. . .
