Vesna Pusic – Croatia, the War, and the Future

Averting Yet Another Collapse Of Croatian Government

April 29, 2017 by inavukic 27 Comments

Croatian Prime Minister
Andrej Plenkovic
Photo: Damjen Tadic/ Hanza media

When upon my return from Croatia a few weeks ago I wrote about my observations on the state of the country one thing that rattled me a great deal was the extent to which the threatening bankruptcy of one private company (Agrokor) was shaking-up the whole country. Subsequently, Croatia was faced with an almost unprecedented, possibly ill-conceived move by the government to rush in new legislation that would enable it to take over the administration of the same company. Be that new law as it may, the Agrokor affair has created a monster that has reeled everyone into a storm of political possibilities and impossibilities.

As the phenomenon of turbulence would have it a rush of new wind either intensifies or stops devastation. The public revelation few days ago that Croatia’s finance minister Zdravko Maric is Agrokor’s former Executive Director for Strategy and Capital had sent the wheels of political winds into a wild spin, threatening the collapse of the government.

Presently, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic is making last-ditch attempts to save the country’s government from collapsing second time in six months after sacking three ministers from its government coalition MOST (Bridge coalition of independent lists) partner amidst their, as well as MOST’s parliament speaker Bozo Petrov’s insistence that minister Maric could no longer enjoy parliament’s confidence and must go. They allege that Maric was in the know about the appalling financial situation in Agrokor and may have contributed to the threatening bankruptcy while working in Agrokor and Prime Minister Plenkovic stands firmly behind his finance minister, prepared for an all-out political combustion that may swallow his government into the cavern of no return. Ministers summarily dismissed/sacked are Interior Minister Vlaho Orepic, Justice Minister Ante Sprlje and Environment and Energy Minister Slaven Dobrovic. But, these sacked ministers are digging their heels in and refusing to go quietly – spurred on undoubtedly by their MOST leader Bozo Petrov who – wrongly to my view – insists that Prime Minister has no powers to sack ministers and that such sacking is tantamount to breaches of the constitutional order.

It needs to be said that the current Croatian Democratic Union/HDZ led government was constructed on sharp and deep fault lines that include coalition with the MOST whose political currents had trailed a path of seeking reforms on basis of criticising the HDZ majority rather than putting forth concrete submissions for reforms through camaraderie and reasonable compromise if need be. Furthermore, MOST and its leader Petrov were instrumental in the bringing down of Croatia’s former government in June 2016. So, the current Government was always going to be susceptible to dramatic shifts in the political landscape particularly if one considers the real possibility that MOST and Petrov are about bringing instability to Croatia – a reminder of the way UDBA/ Yugoslav secret service operated and still operates even if Yugoslavia has ceased to exist more than a quarter of a century ago.

Whether the aftershocks of the current political crisis in Croatia will cause the government to collapse is yet to be seen, but one expects that Prime Minister Plenkovic will do the utmost in his power and knowhow to avoid it. It’s too early to say whether the parliament will render a vote of no confidence in finance minister Maric driven by Petrov, but even if it does a collapse of government does not necessarily follow.

Amidst current trade-offs and talks to avoid a government collapse indications are that any new HDZ’s minority government and its stability will depend on whether similar fault lines to the ones that are currently causing epic tremours appear in new coalitions away from MOST. Given the political leanings on the scene the players in a new refurbished government may come from an available political mosaic of smaller parties such as HNS (Croatian People’s Party) and perhaps the unpredictable HSS (Croatian Peasant Party), some lone political party such as Milorad Pupovac from SDSS/Independent Democratic Serb Party as well as the independent members of parliament.

The prospect of Milorad Pupovac from the Serb party entering into a new government coalition is, frankly, frightening and utterly destructive. The overwhelming sentiment among the Croatian people is that a Serb associated with still unresolved condemnation of Serb aggression against Croatia in 1990’s that had as one of its tasks to stop the creation of an independent Croatia should not be in government. This sentiment is completely justified in this era when Croatia must turn a page and start living as a truly independent Croatian state that gives no leverage of success to any undermining coming particularly from Serb leaders, who are more loyal to Serbia than to Croatia.

Should HNS/Croatian People’s Party be the one to boost the government’s survival prospects then one would expect that its former president Vesna Pusic retracts her past statements in which she falsely and maliciously accused Croatia of aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina during the 1990’s. Otherwise, any coalition between HDZ and HNS forming a government will be poisoned by Pusic’s extraordinarily evil statement. HDZ is the late president Franjo Tudjman’s party, it is the party that victory and Croatian independence are indebted to – a political marriage between that party and the party that still houses Pusic is unthinkable without Pusic’s public retraction of her vicious and false statement about aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina; and without her public apology.

If alliance between HDZ and HNS ensues without resolving the Pusic statement then this is likely to be a scenario when civil unrest becomes really dangerous. That would be the time when everything begins to get truly confusing and crazy. It will defeat a great deal of needed and possible reforms and ensure a crash and burning of political and economic climate starting in 2018.

An unthinkable prospect of Social Democratic Party/SDP forming alliances with view to forming a new government, thus avoiding new and snap general elections sits like a dagger in the chest.

“We will seek new partners to continue the government and ensure political and economic stability,” Prime Minister Plenkovic told reporters in Zagreb. “Should in the next days there be no possibility to form a new parliamentary majority, we are ready for new elections.”

In the 1960’s British Prime Minister Harold Wilson coined the phrase “a week is a long time in politics” and currently in Croatia it feels like an unpleasant, tense eternity. A government collapse at a time when a third option amidst two major parties’ leads has not yet clearly appeared on the horizon as a shoe-in, a certain winner at elections, would spell more of the same and fuel the vicious political circle that has not brought the reforms or changes needed for Croatia. It is at times of collapse that party loyalties become stubborn, no room nor will to look the other way and embrace new political forces even if these may hold the biggest yet promise that Croatia will survive as an independent Croatian state, free, determined and wilful in creating the economic atmosphere for prosperity and well-being. Ina Vukic

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Agrokor, Andrej Plenković, Bozo Petrov, Croatia, government collapse, Milorad Pupovac, political crisis in Croatia, Vesna Pusic, Zdravko Maric

Croatia: Morals Of Lizards And Other Communist Depravities

January 11, 2017 by inavukic 31 Comments

Cover Page
“Hrvatski Tjednik”/ Croatian Weekly
featuring article on
leading communists in Croatia still
terrorising the nation daily
Photo courtesy: Ivica Marijacic, Hrvatski Tjednik

It is axiomatic that politics is the art of the possible, and moral considerations in government will reflect the ideology harboured by those who govern and those who wield power. As profusely as Croatia had bled in its Homeland War during 1990’s as it sought to secede from communist Yugoslavia and build freedom and democracy modeled on the developed democracies of the “Western” world, 25 years on the morals of lizards and other communist depravities are still adversely present in almost every pore of public administration, practices and governance at state and local levels, holding thorough progress to a fully functioning democracy hostage. Momentum to face and deal with this “moral-ethical and state administration crisis” General Zeljko Glasnovic, member of Croatian parliament for the diaspora, has been warning about for some time now, is gaining notable force in Croatia as well as in the diaspora.

General Zeljko Glasnovic
Member of Croatian Parliament for th diaspora
Photo: dnevno.hr

From whatever vantage point one looks, it is unmistakable that there is a moral crisis on the public level in Croatia, which percolates there from personal moral deficiencies in communist resistance to progression away from communist regime and its ideals. There has been a palpable breakdown of the traditional Christian morality across the society that rests on human dignity, freedom and justice modern independent Croatia started its journey with at the beginning of 1990’s and held that morality close to heart all throughout the bloody war. Undoubtedly, the communist heritage that pervades the public administration and all its avenues and mainstream media is the culprit for this crisis. Ugly faces of this crisis can be encountered every day, whether through persisting corruption or new discoveries of it, through tangled red tapes for almost anything one needs done via a public office, through utterly inadequate actions and reactions of government to critical events or through media lynches of anyone and everyone not seen to belong in one way or another to the communist, antifascist, liberal echelons.

With so much focus on government, political figures and people in high positions, journalists following the path of communist resistance to freedom and democracy in Croatia the next obvious question is which ones should be targeted for the removal from position part of lustration process, if politicians championing the cause for it gather enough support and ability to start clearing out the crisis, that is. As it happens, the Croatian Weekly (Hrvatski Tjednik) has last week published a rather good list to aim at, for starters. To aim at either lustrating people from positions of power and if not possible, to neutralise or at least significantly diminish their impact on society.

The article refers to the people on the list as “50 stateless (apatrides) people who terrorise 4.3 million Croats on a daily basis as they mourn the loss of Yugoslavia”.

“As if in a surreal historical story they shed their tears over their dead Yugoslav past, trying to revive her. They do not base on facts or evidence their convictions that are expressly hostile towards Croatia, but on that which attracts them, on hereditary hatreds or, simply, on the deviations of their own political minds. Their Yugo-nostalgia is a legitimate thing, but the problem starts when they align themselves on the side of good, and the rest of us on the side of evil ramming into us a guilt complex because of their overrun ideals and failed lives.”

The list of those that, as Croatian Weekly writes, terrorise Croatia on a daily basis includes:

Stjepan Mesic – former President of Croatia, “die-hard communist led the pack in trying to rehabilitate the criminal communist Yugoslavia, calling all Croats who were against communism – fascists. He idolised the Yugoslav satrap Josip Broz Tito, kept justifying countless and massive communist crimes against Croats, he praised the Serbian myths regarding Croats as genocidal people, he regularly vilifies Croatia for fascism, Ustashe, he attacks the Church, the veterans…”

Ivo Josipovic, former President of Croatia, “a member of the communist caste that attained all its social privileges on the back of the tragedy of the Croatian people. He will be remembered by his vilification of Croatia in Israeli parliament, by the lies he told about Croatia in Bosnia and Herzegovina parliament, by his betrayal in providing Croatia’s secret and classified documents to Serbian ambassador, by his equating of Serb war crimes in Vukovar to individual crimes in Croatia …” the list goes on for him also.

Milorad Pupovac, member of Croatian parliament representing Serb minority and president of NGO Serb National Council in Croatia. To this day Pupovac has not gotten over the failure of the politics he advocated for the Serb ethnic minority in Croatia to achieve the status of a constitution ethnic group in Croatia as opposed to being a minority, which it really is. “He advocates amnesty for Serbia’s Slobodan Milosevic and Serbia for the aggression against Croatia, systematically tries to keep Croatia sitting on the bench of the accused by imposing and imputing fascism against her while, at the same time, organises Chetnik gatherings at Srb, advocates for political and cultural Yugoslavianism, goes to Serbia visiting notorious Chetniks for instructions, ignores Croatian laws and holidays, imposes himself as an arbiter who decides between good and evil, fascism and democracy, does not even try to hide his hatred for Croatia and her symbols...”

Vesna Pusic, former foreign minister of Croatia who “more often than not left the impression she was acting as minister of Yugoslavia and not Croatia. Misspent taxpayers money including giving significant funds to her brother’s NGO and this in particular evidences how low morals have fell in Croatia for the parliamentary committee on the matter did not assess this action as conflict of interest…”

Zoran Pusic (Vesna Pusic’s brother). ” Seeks and receives significant funds from state budget for his work via NGO in which he openly promotes Yugo-communist ideology, rehabilitates Josip Broz Tito, justifies his mass murders, does not hesitate in demonising lies and contempt towards Croatians…”

Dragan Markovina, president of New Left party (active member of which is Zoran Pusic), “whose key goal is battle against clericalisation of the Croatian society and against Ustashism. So far his expressed hatred for Croatia has been stronger than that coming out of any Yugonostalgics. It’s unlikely that any other country in the world would tolerate such an enemy to itself…”

Tvrtko Jakovina, history professor at university in Zagreb – loud “apologist for Yugoslavia, its historiography, its crimes and Josip Broz Tito…he is an embarrassment to Croatian people and to the history profession, which he has reduced to defending a failed totalitarian and bloody ideology...”

Hrvoje Hribar, mediocre film director of Yugo-communist genre, who was instrumental in the scandal last year where significant funds from Croatia were channeled to Danish film directors for the making of “15 minutes – the massacre in Dvor” film, which attributed to the Croatian Army the crimes committed by others.

Slavko Goldstein, a publicist who tries to pass himself off as a historian. “Does not shy away from supporting and spreading the worst of lies against Croatia including the number of people killed in Jasenovac camp during WWII, without any evidence to support the bulk of his claims. Goldstein is a Yugoslav pamphlet designer who has not identified himself with the Croatian state and who defends the lies proliferated by Greater Serbia to the last drop of his blood…”

Drago Pilsel, journalist and the crudest, rudest anti-Croatian and pro-communist activist one could probably imagine. Intolerant and crude and insulting to unspeakable lows.

The list goes on – Vesna Terselic from Documenta NGO and New Left party, whose Documenta received government funds with view to researching facts of crimes against Croatian people but she undertook to take the direction of trying to equate the aggressor (Serbia) with the victim (Croatia) in the 1990’s war, and, of course, has not done a thing about communist crimes except perhaps trying to justify them. There’s also in mention on the list of communists terrorising Croats every day people like Social Democrat Nenad Stazic, actor Rade Serbedzija, theatre director Oliver Frljic, Nada Rauker – a most extreme leftist keeping the fires burning for lies that fascism is being revived in Croatia, Tvrtko Jakovina and Hrvoje Klasic, Yugo-nostalgic historians that demonise every step and every expression of independent Croatian state, Mate Kapovic, linguist.

The depraved work in justifying communist crimes, to the extreme of fabricating lies and insulting the very essence of Croatian independence earned through a bloody war demonstrates the apparent depletion of human morality in these and other Yugo-communists terrorizing a nation that wants to get ahead, finally away from communist claws. In this breath I would not categorise the morality of these people into human morality, it’s a morality of lizards and lizards don’t have much of that at all; the morality they do possess always tries to ensure their own survival even if they need to camouflage themselves, sting, or run to come back behind ones back… Even when they slightly change their political stance, even when they try to adapt to the independent Croatia without communism, the morality of lizards in these Yugo-communists always goes against the grain of decency towards what Croatia should stand for as a modern nation: a nation that has dealt justly with its criminal communist past and its victims of communist crimes and a modern nation whose everyday life is weaved with gratitude to those who defended her from the Serb aggressor. There can never be adequate words to describe the reverence held for those that will succeed in chasing these lizards into their dark holes without a return ticket. Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A., M.A.Ps. (Syd)

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Communist Yugoslavia, Croatia, Dragan Markovina, Drago Pilsel, Hrvatski Tjednik, Ivo Josipovic, lustration, Milorad Pupovac, morals of lizards, Slavko Goldstein, Stjepan Mesic, transitioning from communism, Vesna Pusic, Vesna Terselic, Zeljko Glasnovic, Zoran Pusic

Croatia’s UN Secretary General Candidate Vesna Pusic – Trampling On Human Rights

May 4, 2016 by inavukic 22 Comments

What a miserable wretch! She actually thinks her persona is the same as the country of Croatia! That she is Croatia! The world’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders has yet to classify this delusion, as far as I am aware!

Reacting to criticisms from Croatia regarding her unsuitability as candidate for UN Secretary General, from people who know the alarmingly and painfully detrimental work to democratic processes and freedoms she had performed as public/political figure in Croatia over the past decade or so, Vesna Pusic has actually proven herself during the past week that she does not deserve to be selected into the UN high office. Indeed, her candidature should be withdrawn or thrown out for reasons of blatant denial of rights to opinions and freedom of thought in a democracy, at least.

On Thursday 28 April 2016 a group of 22 Parliamentary Representatives from the conservative coalition, headed by Mr Pero Coric (HSP AS/ Croatian Party of Rights dr Antun Starcevic), had signed and sent a letter addressed to the member states of the UN Security Council and the Croatian government protesting and questing the legality and legitimacy of Vesna Pusic’s candidature for the UN Secretary General position.

Left to right: Ivan Tepes and Pero Coric
At reading the letter protesting
legality and legitimacy of
Vesna Pusic’s candidature
for UN Secretary General
Photo: Screenshot 24sata 2 May 2016

On the same Thursday 28 April 2016 Vesna Pusic wrote on her Facebook page the following miserable and floridly delusional words (translated into English from Croatian):

“For the first time in history Croatia has a chance for candidature for the position of UN Secretary General. According to the existing rules Croatia will have that chance again in 50 years time. The person in that position must represent the universal human values: peace and security, human rights and the right of all to development and advancement. To agitate against the representative of Croatia means to agitate against Croatia. People who do that do damage to the reputation of my homeland Croatia. However, given that they are the people who promote and utilize hate speech, fear, threats, discrimination and exclusion, they do not damage me personally. Because I promote everything that is opposite of this and that, among other things, recommends me for the job of UN Secretary General.”

You may have gathered by now that Vesna Pusic is nothing more than a political lunatic who threatens the world’s democracy and peace if she were by some calamitous error selected as UN Secretary General. Every decent and fair human being in the world would consider the job of UN Secretary General without subjective bias towards his/her own country. UN Secretary General is a job for the world not one country and everyone has a right to give opinion about any of the candidates. I am more than certain that those in Croatia who have and do criticise her and say she is not suited for the job do so with significant consideration of better qualities of other candidates and requirements for the position. As Croats, or as citizen of any country, people have that right because in this circumstance, being citizens under the UN umbrella, they have a right to such opinions without being branded and vilified as “ruining” their country’s reputation because they criticised one citizen of the country – her, in this case!

It was like that in communist Yugoslavia: you criticized one Communist Party official, you were liquidated or placed in prison on political charges or your life was made so difficult that it was not worth living so you fled abroad if you at all could. Looks like it she still lives for communist times and ways.

I think that people in Croatia who criticize her candidature, who agitate against Vesna Pusic becoming UN Secretary General should be commended for they, unlike Vesna Pusic, have the whole world’s interests at heart.

To speak your mind about a politician or his/her deeds is branded as “hate speech, promoting fear, discrimination…” by the very person who has lodged her candidature for a position that must, according to her own words, represent human rights … Now, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UN) – the Declaration the UN Secretary General must uphold, in its Article 19 states the following:
“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”

Well now, Croatia’s candidate Vesna Pusic has in her statement taken at least one human right away from Croatians expressing an opinion about her candidature – the right freedom of opinion and expression.

Absolutely unacceptable. Absolutely repugnant!

dr Zdravko Tomac
Photo:Davor Javorovic/Pixsell

In light of the overwhelming opposition from distinguished Croatian citizens to Vesna Pusic’s candidature as UN Secretary General I do also like the move made on Friday 29 April 2016 by dr Zdravko Tomac (a retired university professor, a former politician and deputy-Prime Minister of Croatia, writer of many books) with his Open Letter to Croatia’s Prime Minister Tihomir Oreskovic suggesting an appropriate discussion/debate in front of Croatia’s Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Council on the pros and cons of Vesna Pusic’s candidature; that opinion be sought from the President of Croatia and heads of coalition parties before a decision is finalised on the pros and cons of the candidature.

Dr Tomac writes a compelling case in his open letter and among other things he says (to the Prime Minister):
“If every Ambassador must receive agreement from the President of Croatia and from the Croatian Parliament in order to be appointed as an Ambassador then it’s impermissible that Croatia does not seek agreement from the President of Croatia and all important elements of the Croatian society before a nomination is given for Croatia’s candidate for the biggest and the most important position Croatia has ever had the opportunity to offer a candidate for. For the matter to be even more serious, Zoran Milanovic and his government sent that candidature while they were only a technical, a caretaker government and had no rights making and sending such a nomination for candidature.”

Indeed, in a previous article I myself questioned the legitimacy of Vesna Pusic’s candidature for UN Secretary General on account of it being made by a government in exit, so am very glad to see other people have assessed the situation the same way as I have. How can one think otherwise than what facts dictate: Pusic was nominated by caretaker government that had no power to nominate her in the name of Croatia at the time, therefore, her candidacy must lack legitimacy and legality. There is no information as to whether Prime Minister of Croatia will respond to the open letter from dr Tomac or from the parliamentary group but I do hope he does. The letters are an expression of fact-based opinion of many notable Croatians who hold democracy and fairness as high values of a society. Vesna Pusic’s latest appalling denial of human rights to people criticising her (for the benefit of the world where the UN Secretary General position sits) surely must be among the reasons to re-examine the suitability of her candidature for UN Secretary General on behalf of Croatia! To do otherwise would be immoral and unjust – on a world scale. Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A., M.A.Ps. (Syd)