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Election impressions from Croatia
Brian Gallagher, the editor of Croatia Business Report (www.croatiabusinessreport.com) was in Croatia for
the aftermath of the Croatian elections. Here, he tells us his impressions.
Just a couple of weeks back, I flew into Croatia to, among other things, look into the aftermath of the Croatian general elections for Croatia Business Report.
Part of the reason for heading to Croatia was to see the aftermath of the elections, in order to write up a full analysis for Croatia Business Report about them.
Getting into Croatia is always a pleasure; Zagreb is rather more civil than London. It is still possible to go about your business without being accosted by dubious individuals in the street or witnessing idiot behaviour. Sure, a couple of iffy characters did ask for money, but even this was not on the scale one experiences in London. Very relaxing, and I hope Croats realise how fortunate they are in this regard. Although one still does need to adjust to more ordered behaviour- I nearly got into trouble with a policeman for crossing a road when the ’no crossing’ lights were on. Zero tolerance!
Even the cold was of a better quality than in London; clear blue skies rather than murky grey.
A day after the election, Croatia was still festooned by election posters. For the incumbent Croatian Democrat Union, there were plenty of their leader, Ivo Sanader with the phrase ‘Idemo Dalje’ - Let‘s go further. For the SDP, there were a great many posters simply saying ‘ti odlucujes’ - you decide. And of course there were plenty of posters for the smaller parties, including tiny ones who did not win any seats.
Having arrived the day after the vote, no government had been formed. Both main parties had claimed victory, HDZ with 66 seats, SDP with 56. The trick is to get 77 to get the all important majority. Deals therefore need to be done with smaller parties. Both parties claimed that could achieve this.
The press, however, seemed to have little doubt as to was the winner, there were plenty of pictures of Ivo Sanader and various HDZ luminaries celebrating and pictures of SDP leader Zoran Milanovic looking glum; the headlines spoke of Sanader’s victory.
At that point, no majority had been confirmed, and most people seemed bemused by the delay. The media was full of speculation. Previously, for differing reasons, it was fairly clear who had won elections. But this was new - coalition forming post elections. There isn’t anything unusual about this in Europe - if not the UK - but it did not seem to go down well with
the Croatian public, with even a music group creating a song about it, making reference to back room deals.
But the Croatians have the electoral system they have, and unless there is radical change to a UK style winner takes all system, which I doubt will happen, post election deal making is likely to be the norm in Croatian elections.
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