Domovina Urednistvo
The results from 17 April 2024 elections for members of the Croatian Parliament yield a picture where the Croatian Democratic Union/HDZ has won a relative majority of seats and this suggests that it has won its third consecutive term in government. But, HDZ still needs to form a government (requires 76 seats), which may prove tricky, if not impossible! According to political analysts, if the latter eventuates, the elections would need to be repeated.
HDZ has won 61 out of 151 seats in the Assembly while the opposition leftist SDP/Social Democratic Party and its coalition “Rivers of Justice” won 42. The third strongest political force in terms of number of seats won belongs to the Homeland Movement/DP which won 14 seats followed by MOST/BRIDGE with 11 seats won. The ultra-leftist Možemo/We Can, that currently holds local government in the capital Zagreb, won 10 seats, NPS (Independent Platform North) won 2 seats, Istrian SD/IDS won 2 seats, Focus 1 and Ethnic Minorities special electoral congregate won 8 seats although these 8 seats are not won on number of votes received from general electorate but via something akin to the concept of an appointment, with relatively negligible number of votes required to enter parliament.
The makeup of the next Parliament has a rather astringent taste of left-leaning inclinations even though HDZ describes itself as centre-right. During its previous two mandates in government HDZ has been in coalition with the Ethnic Minorities congregation whose voice and influence was reaped via the Serb minority represented by those associated with the 1990’s rebel Serb aggressor rather than the Serbs who fought with Croats to defend Croatia from Serb aggression. This coalition had been the biggest thorn in in the eye of Croatian patriotic echelons that fought against such government coalition’s pursuits of equating the victims of the Homeland War with the aggressors. DP or Homeland Movement had been on the side of the former. Fighting against the ill treatment of war veterans by the HDZ government and the privileges the Serb aggressors were receiving in Croatia.
And so, I come to the thought of what may happen in the imminent process of forming a government given that DP still waves battle axes against much of the Ethnic Minority parliamentary congregation and vice-versa. HDZ had retained the Ethnic Minority seats as partner in government to the point of loyalty that irritates multitudes and, if it decides this time around to go with DP, it is certain that not all members of the Ethnic Minority congregation will agree to enter into such a coalition and, as expected, DP would reject it as well. Mooting this idea would in essence mean that HDZ is sacrificing its “loyal partner in government” in favour of DP whose President Ivan Penava had been a loyal HDZ member until 2020. Forming a coalition with SDP and or We Can/Možemo also seems unlikely due to political animosities and distance on the political spectrum between them, the former pro-Ukraine and the latter pro-Russia regarding the current war in Ukraine for example, even though they all share similar progressive leftist pursuits such as upholding the Istanbul Convention, maintaining communist Yugoslavia symbols and mindset, pro-migration. A coalition with MOST, with which HDZ used to be in government coalition for a short spell, which ended on sour and antagonistic notes, also appears unlikely. Forming this new HDZ minority government appears a task that will take quite some time with the possibility that negotiations will crumble. Unless HDZ can pull a hat trick and form a government in that political environment the elections have created we may be looking at new parliamentary elections.
“More than 62 percent of the total number of registered voters voted. Four years ago, the turnout was lower, but we should not take the comparisons as relevant to the end, because then there was the Corona pandemic. The countries of the European Union have an even higher turnout, and we should strive for that,” declared Radovan Dobronic, the president of the Croatian Electoral Commission/DIP.
The fact that Dobronic does not even mention the blockades and harsh obstacles placed upon the access to polling booths in the 11th Constituency, i.e. to Croatian citizens living outside of Croatia of whom there are about one million, suggests that nothing much will change in Croatia despite the overwhelming sentiment among the Croatian public prior to elections that both HDZ and SDP must be removed or voted out of government if functional democracy and rule of law were to make a leap forward and thrive. The result of blockades and obstacles, denial of the human right of suffrage, imposed upon Croatians eligible to vote and living outside of Croatia meant that about 800,000 of eligible voters did not even bother registering for voting. Some 3.7 million registered altogether (within and outside Croatia). If one were to search for a corrupt approach to electoral practices one will find it right there as well as in the fact that both the HDZ nor SDP when they held government fought against and resisted the introduction of electronic and postal voting! The rolling out of information by the Croatian authorities within that Constituency can be described as mean-spirited sabotage of voting rights. For example, the official direction was that voters living abroad must register to vote by 6 April and then, down the page insert a paragraph saying that if voters do not register to vote by the 6th of April they could do so on the day of voting! If one wanted to confuse voters so that they do not vote one just needs to ask Croatian authorities’ for “how to”advice!
The question of electoral corruption and theft has swiftly been raised by Karolina Vidovic Kristo, President of Determination and Justice/OiP party.
“In these elections, half a million more people went to the polls than in 2020. At that time, the elections were marked by an atmosphere of fear due to the Corona pandemic, and that half a million allegedly voted to keep everything as is – in fact, even worse! Therefore, Croatian citizens are forced to accept the status of second-class citizens within the European Union. They must watch how Pavao Vujnovac, a tycoon sponsored by the HDZ, SDP and DP, wears a necklace worth half a million euros, while an employee at Konzum, which Vujnovac took over, struggles to provide basic necessities such as buying bread and milk. Therefore, Croatian citizens are rewarding this injustice based on these results. Such election results are contrary to political and sociological principles. Only the criminal system called Apis and the media, who have fully accepted the role of promoters of corruption and have become reckless mercenaries, believe in them.
Determination and Justice party was in complete isolation, but we dominated social networks. This is why our election result we received is absolutely an impossibility and the result of bare-faced theft. The OIP will request a recount because this result has nothing to do with logic, common sense, and real facts. The ruling powers have created their own political idyll and divided roles among themselves. In this scenario, truth and basic democratic and European values have no place.
According to this scenario, alleged anti-corruption fighters such as Kolakusic, who is part of the corrupt judicial system, were elected. It is ironic that he is fighting corruption by entering into a coalition with the openly corrupt structure of Pavlo Vujnovac. MOST criticizes corruption, but it does so in order to satisfy the form and be a decoration for the existing corrupt system, without calling into question the corrupt system itself. Every political actor who agreed to be part of the existing corrupt media-political system is a participant in it. The OIP did not accept that, which is why we were put in media isolation, and today we are victims of theft by that same system.
OIP was not invited to any debates, nor did we have the opportunity to appear in any mainstream media. For a month, Croatian citizens were exposed to daily polls, which was a preparation for the theft of votes that happened today. Unfortunately, today’s results were too similar to those polls, even though the turnout estimate was at odds with the actual turnout that occurred today.
Every lie is eventually exposed, so all those who participated in today’s shameless theft of the votes of Croatian citizens and unprecedented media manipulation will be exposed and brought to justice.
Personally, like thousands of OIP supporters, I will not give up the fight for an orderly, just and successful Croatia. In the historical context, today is like the day of the fall of Vukovar. But I guarantee you that both Lightning and Storm will follow and that we will establish a Croatia where everyone will be equal before the law and where no one will be above the law,” said Karolina Vidovic Kristo in her Press Release of 18 April 2024.
Ina Vukic
