communist totalitarian regime – Croatia, the War, and the Future

Croatia – Election Results In Capital Zagreb Crucial For Continued Affirmation Of Harshly Won Sovereignty

May 29, 2021 by inavukic 8 Comments

30th May is Croatian Statehood Day! The date that marked in 1990 the inauguration of the Croatian Parliament as we know it today, the guardian as it were of a sovereign Croatia.

Happy Croatian Statehood Day!

In 2021 it is also the day when the Second round of local elections will be held. If the new left green We Can (Možemo) coalition wins lead positions in the Capital of Zagreb local government it will also signal an attack (either by large or small voter turnout) on Croatia’s sovereignty away from communist Yugoslavia.

People in Croatia during the last 15 years, at least, have been crying out for change! Change in political leadership that would bring about a solidification of values fought for during the 1990’s Homeland War, when almost 94% of Croatian voters said a big YES to secession from communism and Yugoslavia. Whichever way one turned it seemed the popular consensus was that Croatia needs to rid itself of HDZ/Croatian Democratic Union and SDP/Social Democratic Party as leading political parties because their governments since year 2000 had increasingly failed to modernise laws in order to move away from former communist practices, increasingly failed to cut corruption and nepotism, increasingly failed to usher in investment and development that would battle alarming unemployment and brain drain away from the country… Yet voter turnout had consistently been low for this change to actually occur.

Today, in 2021, Croatia still lives in an era of unprecedented income inequality, unnatural political elitism, corruption, non-responsive legislation to the evident needs, and skyrocketing childhood poverty just as it did under the communist/socialist regime in former Yugoslavia. In 2019 and according to the research of the Institute of Economics [“Child Poverty and Strategies for Coping with Household Poverty in Croatia”] almost 300,000 children in Croatia lived in poverty, often without basic necessities. The situation is not better today and that is an unacceptable number of children living in poverty; in a country of just over 4 million people those numbers are debilitating and devastating. The 2019 survey cited another devastating statistic: one in five members of poor families said at least one member of the household had gone to bed hungry in the month prior to the survey.

No doubt, financial insecurity increases someone’s odds of poor psychological and physical well-being. And so, one must wonder if many voters in Zagreb who have at the first round of local elections on 16 May 2021 voted significantly for the new ultra-left green hybrid of communism and socialism under the name “We Can” (Možemo) into the Council Assembly are actually still walking the communist Yugoslavia tightrope of wilful self-deception, being a Pollyanna, who only wears rose-tinted glasses and pretends the glass is half-full when it’s really not! The We Can voters as those activists involved in this political platform have certainly not learned the lesson of sustainable good life and that is: without hard work and productivity there can be no permanent exit from poverty and financial insecurity. They say they will get rid of corruption, yet corrupt and non-transparent ways define their funded activist histories! Their employment or productivity history reads activist, paid activist, NGO activist with no services provision but lots of pro-communist political claptrap, LGBTQIA intrusive pressure against mainstream Christian family values (whether you want the pressure or not) … evidently carrying the badge of approval of the communism coined phrases “State-led Corruption” and “State-led Mass Murder”!

These We Can political activists are really of the same breed as the major political parties like HDZ and SDP, who have held government both nationally and locally. The fact that they brandish the symbols and insignia of the former communist Yugoslavia as something to be celebrated, even though it murdered in cold blood at least one million of innocent people, even though the EU has branded it as criminal totalitarian regime – tells you everything about them even though the tattoo “democracy” is “embedded” upon their foreheads.

As to how much this new left hybrid of unwelcome communism and socialism that’s hiding under “We Can” name will rock Croatia’s political and economic stability in the coming four years will be seen on this coming Sunday 30^th May when the 2^nd Round of local elections will confirm the leading positions of Mayor, Deputy Mayor and County Governors. What happens in the Capital city of a country is usually the guiding rule as to what political mood will spread throughout the country in the coming four years. Should the We Can Tomislav Tomasevic win the Mayoral seat of Zagreb instead of Miroslav Skoro of the Homeland Movement party, for instance, Croatia should also brace itself for some serious reckoning on the streets directed against the communist past being kept alive in Croatia.

The fact that a portion of Croatia’s voters may be realigning to the Left after the Social Democrats have lost much footing on the ground in past couple of years is not so much of a concern, given the Left has always been there, but what is of grave concern is the fact that with this new Left (under We Can brand) comes a mad and brazen attempt at reaffirmation of values of communist regime of former Yugoslavia against which 94% voted in 1991! It would be communism and socialism creeping back into the Capital City, walking without recognition or respect over the dead bodies and bones of thousands upon thousands who sacrificed their lives to rid Croatia of that political and social plague in the 1990’s. I shudder at this possibility.

In local elections held in 576 local and regional government bodies in Croatia on Sunday, May 16, in 70 cities, the heads were elected in the first round of voting. Of these, the HDZ won 36 mayorships and the major opposition party, the Social Democratic Party of Croatia (SDP), managed only 13. Of the six counties that elected prefects in the first round, HDZ secured four. Other counties and cities will have runoffs on May 30 to elect their mayors and prefects.

In three major cities, the incumbent HDZ failed to achieve major breakthroughs. In Zagreb, Tomislav Tomasevic, leader of Mozemo! (We can!) from the green-left coalition, secured 45.15% votes while his nearest rival Miroslav Skoro, leader of the right-wing Homeland Movement, won 12.6% votes. In the 47-seat Zagreb City Assembly, the green-left We Can coalition won 23 seats, falling one seat short of simple majority.

In Split, the second largest city in Croatia, Ivica Puljak from the liberal Centre party won 26.82% votes and will take on Vice Mihanović from the HDZ (23.23% votes) in the second round on 30 May. In Rijeka, the third largest city and a traditional SDP stronghold, Marko Filipović from the SDP (30.25%) will take on independent centre-right candidate Davor Stimac (16.10%) in the second round.

Local elections in Croatia as elsewhere in Europe, are considered a second-order election and not so important for the national agenda. They are called as such because regularly they attracted less interest, as well as lower voter turnout, and are perceived less crucial than parliamentary and presidential elections, which form a national constellation of political relations. However, one must heed a warning that local elections in Croatia are quite pivotal because, for example, many political parties do not possess the same amount of strength or public recognition at the national level, when compared to local politics. Such parties invest all of their efforts in building local-level networks that include not only politicians but entrepreneurs and interest groups, which subsequently helps them in pushing forward with their national-level policies. This is particularly important in the atmosphere where state-controlled mainstream media outlets is very biased and discriminates against political candidates. Local elections are also significant due to the fact that decision-makers on the local level can, at the same time, perform duties on the national level. For example, one who holds a position of city mayor or county governor, can be elected to legislative body on the national level, that is, the Croatian Parliament. Therefore, this local election race is quite significant as it will showcase the strength of two of the major political parties HDZ and SDP) as well as the strength of the emerging political forces that seem to be seen as filling the “third option” shoes in the country. At this moment the two competing for these shoes are the ultra-leftist and green We Can and the right-wing Homeland Movement led by Miroslav Skoro. Whichever wins the top position for Zagreb will signal the way that the political climate is likely to move in the immediate future. If Tomasevic wins nostalgia towards the criminal communist regime of Yugoslavia is likely to grow causing major unrests on the streets and beyond. If Skoro wins a stronger orientation towards business and new job development and a deserved strengthening of Homeland War values. The later would be what Croatia needs and must have in order to become politically and economically stable. Ina Vukic

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 30th May 1990, childhood poverty Croatia, communist totalitarian regime, Communist Yugoslavia, Croatia, Croatian Homeland War, Croatian political instability, Croatian Statehood Day, Domovinski pokret, HDZ, Homelnd Movement, Local Elections 2021 in Croatia, Miroslav Skoro, Možemo, new left in Croatia, SDP, Tomislav Tomasevic, We Can

The Menace Of Croatia’s Communist Ideals (Im)moral Compass

September 10, 2017 by inavukic 16 Comments

Vukovar Croatian Homeland War Memorial

Watching Croatia’s current political discourse (and deadlock, political and economic chaos, government crises, unrelenting emergence of the identity of communist revenge against the victory in Croatia’s Homeland War for self-determination, independence and democracy that labels as fascist even the slogan “For Home Ready” (Za Dom Spremni) under which in early 1990’s many sacrificed everything so that Croatia could be free of communist Yugoslavia …, I see a menacing lack of authentic discussion of the core values of sovereignty and democracy for which the Homeland War was fought that ought to be guiding the Croatian people as a society.

I see Croatia as morally adrift, as not having a clear sense of how to ground its people’s identity and actions to ultimate values that transcend time and place; it lacks clear moral compass or a foundational guide that stem out from its very own fight and sacrifice to abandon communism. Valuing the original goals because of which it exists (victoriously defending its 1990’s goal to secede from communist Yugoalsavia and install democracy) comes precisely because the roots of valuing are embedded in such a moral grounding, and this is disturbingly labile in mainstream Croatia. Unfortunately, much of Croatia seems to have lost or left far behind that moral grounding that was cemented in defending it from Serb and Yugoslav Army aggression.

With its ethnic minorities Croatia somewhat fits into a frame of a multicultural country, but it is vital that Croatia remembers all who fought and died during the Homeland war, all those defenders who survived it. Today, Croatia lives in a time of amplified politically and ideologically engineered social divisions, amplified name-calling, degradation and neglect of those who fought for its independence that’s coming from the so-called antifascist ranks, most of which never wanted an independent and democratic Croatia in the first place. The fascist or Ustashi labeling of “For Home Ready” greeting even from the realms of governing powers, while symbols of former communist totalitarian regime (against which the Homeland war was fought) run freely along the streets, and the politically-engendered fear of the Other (i.e. those that vie for decommunisation of the country and are labeled as fascists or neo-fascists). There is alarming lack of will to ensure that the history being taught was more accurate (particularly WWII and post-WWII history), more representative of the truth. It cannot be right that Croatia’s children must actively search for the truth of communist crimes and the oppression that post-WWII brought upon the Croatian people. This among other truths must become something they learn as a matter of course – that is the least Croatia owes to its children in honour of the Homeland war and freedom from communism fight.

Those who fought in the Homeland war gave up everything for the country, for the people. And all that’s been done about it is remembering those who lost their lives for Croatia; nothing much has been done to complete the goal of achieving full democracy in peacetime, far away from communist mindset and its established corrupt ways of doing business with the “state”, whether it be getting a job, setting up a business, public service customer relations, getting through court proceedings, or accessing aspects of medical care…

But honour is much more than mere remembrance.

In order to properly remember those who have died, Croatia must consider the conditions that led to the wars in which people gave their last full measure of devotion. Although Veterans Day is perceived as a day to honour Croatian warriors, it must be considered that it is, more broadly, a day to honour what they were fighting for: independent and democratic Croatia severed from any shape or form of communism. The latter is sadly and continuously swept under the carpet. In order to properly honour the defenders, Croatian people ought to examine their choices as a nation, where they succeeded and where they can more effectively ensure peace and uphold the principle of democracy that develops the nation and not the quasi-democracy where the communist mindset, denial and justification of communist crimes penetrate into all pores of society, holding it back from true progress reflected in a better living standard for all.

Instead of a moral compass, people have been given enormous freedom to construct their own lives and make their own moral decisions with regards to the Croatian state; even those moral decisions that go against the grain of the goals set for Croatia to achieve just prior the 1991 onwards Serb aggression against it. This, no doubt, resulted in the current political and ideological chaos that’s holding Croatia back in almost every sense of the word. To tolerate the maintenance of communist Yugoslavia system of public administration, unfriendly laws, antagonising red tape in business, tolerance of events and symbols of communist totalitarian regime against which the hard-fought war was won, etc. that stifle progress particularly in the economic sense is actually – madness!

A madness that must be addressed!

The only way to address it is lustration.

Instead of being banned by law, the symbols and rituals/practices of the communist Yugoslavia totalitarian regime continue to generate misery and outrage. No shame seems to be felt in much of the society for the atrocities of communist crimes; defending communism has promoted this shamelessness into a valid political position. It can be attacked only at the peril of seeming to take sides in Croatia’s political wars — which the mainstream media steadfastly refuse to do.

This has silenced much of the society from expressing a sense of outrage at positions that seem outside the moral system that Croatia set its sights upon when the people decided to abandon communist Yugoslavia. It has also prevented Croatia as a nation from having a debate not just about policy, but about an evidently spreading national morality that cheers death or poverty.

When shame dies, so does our moral sense. You can already hear the applause at the grave.

That the communist morality, and shamelessness, has usurped too much space in everyday lives of the people in Croatia is only too visible in the unacceptably high numbers of Homeland war veterans’ suicides and unacceptable levels of poverty and lack of livelihood prospects that have seen enormous numbers flee the country and emigrate.

The social and political environment in Croatia, in which everything and anything about the past communist totalitarian regime is gaining ground as a valid political position (which then trickles down into policies and practices) also means that a parallel moral compass whose effects ripple into further distancing of the independent and democratic nation from its original start-point and moral compass, is being embedded once-again into the cultural space Croatia fought hard to leave.

If Croatian values are to mean anything, there are some things the people need to get straight.

The importance of the Homeland War for all the Croatian people cannot be ignored. Nor can its influence on the values the nation should hold.

If people think pro-communist liberalism has the answers and can produce a set of values that will tie the society together, they need to go away and think a lot harder.

There needs to be a moral foundation that cannot be created out of nothing or out of something the nation fought against, lost thousands of lives because of it. Lumping positions from former communist regime together with positions that arose from the plight for freedom from communism under the Equality banner and assuming everyone will want to play along nicely is a recipe for disaster. That disaster must be averted by getting back on a national level to the values and the moral compass that were the heart of Croatia’s fight for democracy and freedom from communism, or communist antifascism. Ina Vukic

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: communist crimes, communist mindset, communist totalitarian regime, Croatia, Croatian Homeland War, decommunisation, lustration, moral compass

Croatia: Finally – Tito’s Bust Goes Bust

February 22, 2015 by inavukic 66 Comments

An almost incalculable number of crimes against humanity are the legacy left by Josip Broz Tito, the leader of former totalitarian regime of communist Yugoslavia and yet the sculpture of him in the form of a bust has managed to remain in the main foyer of the Office of the President of Croatia all this time since Croatia succeeded to break away from Yugoslavia, becoming an independent and democratic country, now a member of the EU.

If we take the transitive verb “bust” as meaning “unusable” then, indeed, the bust sculpture of Tito in the top office of this democratic country simply can no longer be tolerated, nor is it appropriate since Tito’s track-record in planning and encouraging the perpetration of incalculable crimes against innocent people had actually rendered the presence of his bust unusable and inoperable in a system of freedom and democracy and self-determination.
The communists and former communists of Yugoslavia/Croatia have insisted on having Tito’s bust displayed in that prominent place, as is the office of Croatia’s President – arguing that Tito and his WWII endeavours represent the very notion of antifascism upon which independent Croatia was created and built. However, the very truth of the matter is that modern Croatia was created by an overwhelming number of people who rejected communist Yugoslavia as created and maintained by Josip Broz Tito and his followers.
Praiseworthy – one of the first moves made by the new president of Croatia, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, as she stepped into her role of president was to announce the removal of the bust of Tito from the Office of the President. In this move, Grabar-Kitarovic emphasised that she continues to hold antifascism as an important foundation of Croatian independence and democracy but that Tito was a dictator and, therefore, a sculpture of his image has no place being there. The first president of Croatia, Franjo Tudjman, considered Tito as one the great statesmen in post WWII Europe, however, he also emphasised that Tito was responsible for the widespread communist crimes committed against innocent people under his leadership.
Certainly, the true antifascism many Croats say they subscribe to cannot be associated with Tito’s communism even though this is exactly what they’ve been trying to do and trying to protect ever since Croatia broke away from the former communist Yugoslavia in the early 1990’s. Indeed, by insisting on communism as being equal to antifascism – the last two presidents of Croatia (Stjepan Mesic and Ivo Josipovic) have managed to make Croatia a painfully backward and divisively active country when it comes to facing the ugly truth of Tito’s (Yugoslav) communist totalitarianism. They continue misusing and abusing the term “antifascism” by pinning it to Tito’s communists.

EU’s condemnation of totalitarian regimes and their crimes simply does not go with having Tito’s bust displayed in the Office of the President of one of its member countries. Furthermore, one must conclude that breaking away from communist Yugoslavia also means placing into history, and not keeping alive in the Office of the President, the symbols of communist Yugoslavia, which is a bust of Tito.
Former president Stjepan Mesic, seeking that Tito’s bust be placed in his “former president’s office”, has expressed his protest against the removal of Tito’s bust from the Office of the President, saying that such a move heralds “not only an accommodation to the rigid right-wing and profascist and neofascist circles in Croatia, but also demonstrates an alarming indication of cramped efforts to erase a part of Croatian history and to remove the memory about the antifascist battle, which is one of the brightest pages in that history…”
But of course, not a word from Stjepan Mesic about the communist crimes perpetrated during his “brightest pages” of Croatian history! This obnoxious political scourge Croatia has been burdened with surely must end. One cannot tolerate accusations of profascism and neofascism, where there are none, even if they are, as in the case of Stjepan Mesic – desperate and last ditch efforts to save Tito and communism from the gallows they deserve. If these are not justified grounds to do away with the office of former president Stjepan Mesic by the same standards as for Ivo Josipovic – i.e. five years after the presidential mandate end, then I do not know what are. Croatia simply cannot tolerate the incessant vilification of its people who were not communists during the life of former Yugoslavia!
The only way unity, to which president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic fervently aspires, can be achieved is through the truth. It will take the strength of Croatia’s new president – Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic – to separate true antifascism from Tito’s/communist Yugoslavia antifascism. True antifascism cannot and must not be associated with communist crimes of WWII and post-WWII.
So, thumbs up to you and your courage – president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic!
Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zbg); B.A., M.A.Ps. (Syd)