Nachrichten aus Kroatien

[Grdelin]

[h=1]Croatia 2016: Political Turbulence and Foreign Feuds[/h]Tihomir Oreskovic’s government fell after only a few months, the opposition Social Democratic leader resigned, feuds with Serbia worsened - but the tourist season was excellent.

Sven Milekic
BIRN
Zagreb
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Tihomir Oreskovic presenting government. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Daniel Kasap/DS[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
After different twists and turns that followed parliamentary elections in November 2015, the new centre-right government was voted in the parliament last January.
Although the government was led by the main party on the centre-right, the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, the kingmaker was a newcomer to national politics, the Bridge of the Independent Lists, MOST, with Bozo Petrov as its leader. Read More: Croatia's New Cabinet Draws Mixed Response
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Tihomir Oreskovic. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Damir SENCAR/MO[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
The government represented a political experiment as neither HDZ nor MOST took the position of prime minister. Instead, the HDZ proposed Tihomir Oreskovic, a non-party candidate with a background in the pharmaceutical industry with no political experience. He became the new Prime Minister.
His government soon turned out to be unstable however. Some experts later claimed that with no party of his own to rely on, he had been “doomed from the start”. Read more: Croatia's Ex-PM Was Doomed From Start, Experts Say
The trouble started in March when Oreskovic tried to assert his independence from the HDZ, which led to the tension between the HDZ on one side and MOST and Oreskovic on the other. Read more: Rifts Pose Threat to Croatia's Unwieldy Coalition
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Oreskovic's government in session. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Denis CERIC/MO[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
After blunders in the process of appointing new ministers and with no clear vision about how to boost the economy and reduce the budget deficit, on May 11, the credit ranking agency Moody’s lowered Croatia’s credit ranking for borrowing in foreign currencies from Ba1 to Ba2, with a negative outlook.
Moody’s argued that Croatia’s public debt, then about 86 per cent of its annual GDP, was far above other countries with a Ba1 credit ranking, whose public debts are worth an average of 45 per cent of GDP. Read more: Creditors Lose Faith in Croatia’s ‘Expert’ Govt
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic and Tihomir Oreskovic discussing on Dragan Lozancic's faith. Photo: Office of the President[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Oreskovic had also entered into a dispute with President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic – despite both being close to HDZ – regarding the removal of the head of Security and Intelligence Agency, SOA, Dragan Lozancic. Read more: Croatian Security Chief’s Fate Hangs in Balance
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]War veterans' minister Mijo Crnoja's registered address. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Damir SENCAR/MO[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Some ministers in the government attracted unnecessary attention. The Minister for War Veterans, Mijo Crnoja, drew ridicule for having proposed the creation of a register of “national traitors”. Read more: Croatian ‘Traitors’ Defy New War Veterans Minister

[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Crnoja resigning. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Daniel KASAP/DS[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
After hostile coverage in the media he stepped down after less than six days in office. Read more: Protests Force out Croatian Veterans' Minister
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Zlatko Hasanbegovic. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Damir SENCAR/DS[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Culture Minister Zlatko Hasanbegovic was even more controversial. The weekly newspaper Novosti discovered that he had written articles for an extreme right-wing bulletin as a student in the 1990s and had praised the World War II Fascist Ustasa movement. Despite the controversies surrounding him, Hasanbegovic remained in office. Read more: Culture Minister Who Left His Mark on Croatia
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Tomislav Karamarko and Ana Saric Karamarko. Photo: Facebook[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
The weekly newspaper Nacional in May meanwhile broke the news that Ana Saric Karamarko, wife of the HDZ president and Vice Prime Minister, Tomislav Karamarko, had received over 60,000 euros to counsel a lobbyist for the Hungarian energy firm MOL, with which Croatia is in dispute. MOL and Croatia are undergoing international arbitration over the Croatian energy company INA. Read more: Croatia's Vice PM Quizzed Over Wife's 'Links to MOL
The two ruling parties had been tussling and threatening early elections almost since the government was formed but the controversy over Karamarko’s wife brought matters to a head. In the end, MOST joined the opposition parties in supporting the no-confidence vote in Karamarko. Read more: Croatian Govt Threatened as Ruling Coalition Withers
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Oreskovic talking to the parliament before the non-confidence vote. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Damir SENCAR/DS[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
This brought Oreskovic, Petrov and Karamarko into further conflict. In the meantime, the parliament's Commission for Conflicts of Interest ruled that Karamarko had been in a conflict of interest over his wife’s relations to MOL lobbyist.
In mid-June, the HDZ filed a motion of no-confidence in Oreskovic after which the government fell. Read more: Croatian Govt Falls After MPs Oust Oreskovic
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]President Grabar Kitarovic calling for early elections. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Lana SLIVAR DOMINIC/MO[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
The President then called early elections for September. Read more: Croatia President Backs Early Elections
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Tomislav Karamarko resigning as HDZ president. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/DARIO GRZELJ/EV/MO[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Karamarko resigned as HDZ president a few days later. Read more: Karamarko Resigns as Croatian Democratic Union President
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Andrej Plenkovic. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Lana SLIVAR DOMINIC/MO[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
With Karamarko stepping down, the HDZ held internal elections in late July, which the party’s MEP, Andrej Plenkovic, won as the only candidate standing. Plenkovic promised a more moderate, centrist direction in contrast to Karamarko’s more right-wing approach. Read more: Andrej Plenkovic: Centrist in the Running for Croatia’s HDZ
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Zoran Milanovic. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Lana SLIVAR DOMINIC/DS[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
With general elections scheduled for September 11, the campaign got underway in August. After Plenkovic took part in a TV duel in August with Zoran Milanovic, president of the opposition centre-left Social Democratic Party, SDP, the latter came under the spotlight over leaked audios of a closed meeting he had held with war veterans in which he described Bosnia and Herzegovina as a failed state and the Serbian political leadership as “arrogant”. The leaked report caused tensions in the region. Read more: Croatia Ex-PM’s Leaked ‘Insults’ Anger Bosnia, Serbia
Although the majority of opinion polls suggested the SDP would win the election, the HDZ won 61 of the 151 seats in the parliament while the SDP-led coalition won 54.
The HDZ then formed a new government with MOST and MPs representing national minorities under Plenkovic as Prime Minister. Read more: Croatia Parliament Votes in Plenkovic's New Govt
After two election defeats in only ten months, Milanovic on September 12 said he would not run in party elections that were scheduled to take place within five months. Read more: Milanovic to Quit as Leader of Croatian Leftists
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Davor Bernardic. Photo: Facebook/Davor Bernardic[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
With seven candidates standing in the SDP leadership election organised in late November, 36-year-old Davor Bernardic won the second round. Read more: Davor Bernardic: Social Democrat Leader Unlikely to Turn Left
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Croatian foreign minister Miro Kovac (left, in the middle) and his Serbian counterpart Ivica Dacic (right). Photo: Beta[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Besides the damage caused by Milanovic’s leaked statements, Croatia’s relations with its neighbours were generally poor. Throughout the year, Croatia blocked Serbia from opening new chapters in its EU membership negotiations, which caused reactions on both sides. Read more: Croatia-Serbia Tensions Escalate Into Diplomatic War
President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic’s various statements about Croatia’s neighbours also added oil to the flames, delighting some and infuriating others both at home and in the region. Read more: Croatian President's Year Sees High and Lows
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Defence Minister Damir Krsticevic. Photo: MORH/I. Brand[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
The arrest of a number of Bosnian Croats – suspected of committing war crimes in 1990s war – in the northern Bosnian town of Orasje in late October, caused much excitement in Croatia while a war-crimes investigation into Defence Minister and Vice-Prime Minister Damir Krsticevic also caused anger. Read more: Zagreb’s Meddling in Bosnian Croats’ Arrest Could Backfire
With its northern neighbour, Slovenia, Croatia continued to argue over the maritime border in the northern Adriatic. Slovenia created a fresh dispute when it erected a fence on the border in order to block unwanted refugees in October. Read more: Slovenia's Border Fence Alarms Migrant Experts in Croatia
The fence was viewed in Croatia as unnecessary as in March the so-called “Balkan refugee route”, which included Croatia, was closed. Thereafter the number of migrants crossing the border fell sharply. Read more: Balkan States Close Borders in Domino Effect
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Andrej Plenkovic (left) during his visit to Kiev. Photo: Facebook/Croatian government[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Croatia’s relations with Russia also deteriorated. Shortly after the new government assumed office, Plenkovic visited Ukraine. There he offered Croatia’s own experience in peacefully re-integrating rebel-held territory in 1995 as a possible model for Ukraine, parts of which in the east are under the control of pro-Russian rebels. Russia slated both the initiative and Croatia’s treatment of its Serbian minority. Read more: Russia Snubs Croatia's Peace Initiative on Ukraine
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Port of Dubrovnik in southern Croatia. Photo: Beta[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
On a more optimistic note, the country notched up a likely all-time record for tourism. A major contributor to the Croatian economy, the tourist season flourished partly as a result of terrorist outrages in Turkey, which resulted in holidaymakers diverting to safer Croatia. Read more: Montenegrin, Croatian Tourism Surges as Visitors Shun Turkey

- See more at: Croatia 2016: Political Turbulence and Foreign Feuds :: Balkan Insight

eins der peinlichsten Jahre für Kroatien

- - - Aktualisiert - - -

[h=1]Croatia 2016: Political Turbulence and Foreign Feuds[/h]Tihomir Oreskovic’s government fell after only a few months, the opposition Social Democratic leader resigned, feuds with Serbia worsened - but the tourist season was excellent.

Sven Milekic
BIRN
Zagreb
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Tihomir Oreskovic presenting government. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Daniel Kasap/DS[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
After different twists and turns that followed parliamentary elections in November 2015, the new centre-right government was voted in the parliament last January.
Although the government was led by the main party on the centre-right, the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, the kingmaker was a newcomer to national politics, the Bridge of the Independent Lists, MOST, with Bozo Petrov as its leader. Read More: Croatia's New Cabinet Draws Mixed Response
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Tihomir Oreskovic. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Damir SENCAR/MO[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
The government represented a political experiment as neither HDZ nor MOST took the position of prime minister. Instead, the HDZ proposed Tihomir Oreskovic, a non-party candidate with a background in the pharmaceutical industry with no political experience. He became the new Prime Minister.
His government soon turned out to be unstable however. Some experts later claimed that with no party of his own to rely on, he had been “doomed from the start”. Read more: Croatia's Ex-PM Was Doomed From Start, Experts Say
The trouble started in March when Oreskovic tried to assert his independence from the HDZ, which led to the tension between the HDZ on one side and MOST and Oreskovic on the other. Read more: Rifts Pose Threat to Croatia's Unwieldy Coalition
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Oreskovic's government in session. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Denis CERIC/MO[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
After blunders in the process of appointing new ministers and with no clear vision about how to boost the economy and reduce the budget deficit, on May 11, the credit ranking agency Moody’s lowered Croatia’s credit ranking for borrowing in foreign currencies from Ba1 to Ba2, with a negative outlook.
Moody’s argued that Croatia’s public debt, then about 86 per cent of its annual GDP, was far above other countries with a Ba1 credit ranking, whose public debts are worth an average of 45 per cent of GDP. Read more: Creditors Lose Faith in Croatia’s ‘Expert’ Govt
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic and Tihomir Oreskovic discussing on Dragan Lozancic's faith. Photo: Office of the President[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Oreskovic had also entered into a dispute with President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic – despite both being close to HDZ – regarding the removal of the head of Security and Intelligence Agency, SOA, Dragan Lozancic. Read more: Croatian Security Chief’s Fate Hangs in Balance
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]War veterans' minister Mijo Crnoja's registered address. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Damir SENCAR/MO[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Some ministers in the government attracted unnecessary attention. The Minister for War Veterans, Mijo Crnoja, drew ridicule for having proposed the creation of a register of “national traitors”. Read more: Croatian ‘Traitors’ Defy New War Veterans Minister

[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Crnoja resigning. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Daniel KASAP/DS[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
After hostile coverage in the media he stepped down after less than six days in office. Read more: Protests Force out Croatian Veterans' Minister
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Zlatko Hasanbegovic. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Damir SENCAR/DS[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Culture Minister Zlatko Hasanbegovic was even more controversial. The weekly newspaper Novosti discovered that he had written articles for an extreme right-wing bulletin as a student in the 1990s and had praised the World War II Fascist Ustasa movement. Despite the controversies surrounding him, Hasanbegovic remained in office. Read more: Culture Minister Who Left His Mark on Croatia
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Tomislav Karamarko and Ana Saric Karamarko. Photo: Facebook[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
The weekly newspaper Nacional in May meanwhile broke the news that Ana Saric Karamarko, wife of the HDZ president and Vice Prime Minister, Tomislav Karamarko, had received over 60,000 euros to counsel a lobbyist for the Hungarian energy firm MOL, with which Croatia is in dispute. MOL and Croatia are undergoing international arbitration over the Croatian energy company INA. Read more: Croatia's Vice PM Quizzed Over Wife's 'Links to MOL
The two ruling parties had been tussling and threatening early elections almost since the government was formed but the controversy over Karamarko’s wife brought matters to a head. In the end, MOST joined the opposition parties in supporting the no-confidence vote in Karamarko. Read more: Croatian Govt Threatened as Ruling Coalition Withers
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Oreskovic talking to the parliament before the non-confidence vote. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Damir SENCAR/DS[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
This brought Oreskovic, Petrov and Karamarko into further conflict. In the meantime, the parliament's Commission for Conflicts of Interest ruled that Karamarko had been in a conflict of interest over his wife’s relations to MOL lobbyist.
In mid-June, the HDZ filed a motion of no-confidence in Oreskovic after which the government fell. Read more: Croatian Govt Falls After MPs Oust Oreskovic
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]President Grabar Kitarovic calling for early elections. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Lana SLIVAR DOMINIC/MO[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
The President then called early elections for September. Read more: Croatia President Backs Early Elections
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Tomislav Karamarko resigning as HDZ president. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/DARIO GRZELJ/EV/MO[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Karamarko resigned as HDZ president a few days later. Read more: Karamarko Resigns as Croatian Democratic Union President
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Andrej Plenkovic. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Lana SLIVAR DOMINIC/MO[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
With Karamarko stepping down, the HDZ held internal elections in late July, which the party’s MEP, Andrej Plenkovic, won as the only candidate standing. Plenkovic promised a more moderate, centrist direction in contrast to Karamarko’s more right-wing approach. Read more: Andrej Plenkovic: Centrist in the Running for Croatia’s HDZ
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Zoran Milanovic. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Lana SLIVAR DOMINIC/DS[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
With general elections scheduled for September 11, the campaign got underway in August. After Plenkovic took part in a TV duel in August with Zoran Milanovic, president of the opposition centre-left Social Democratic Party, SDP, the latter came under the spotlight over leaked audios of a closed meeting he had held with war veterans in which he described Bosnia and Herzegovina as a failed state and the Serbian political leadership as “arrogant”. The leaked report caused tensions in the region. Read more: Croatia Ex-PM’s Leaked ‘Insults’ Anger Bosnia, Serbia
Although the majority of opinion polls suggested the SDP would win the election, the HDZ won 61 of the 151 seats in the parliament while the SDP-led coalition won 54.
The HDZ then formed a new government with MOST and MPs representing national minorities under Plenkovic as Prime Minister. Read more: Croatia Parliament Votes in Plenkovic's New Govt
After two election defeats in only ten months, Milanovic on September 12 said he would not run in party elections that were scheduled to take place within five months. Read more: Milanovic to Quit as Leader of Croatian Leftists
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Davor Bernardic. Photo: Facebook/Davor Bernardic[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
With seven candidates standing in the SDP leadership election organised in late November, 36-year-old Davor Bernardic won the second round. Read more: Davor Bernardic: Social Democrat Leader Unlikely to Turn Left
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Croatian foreign minister Miro Kovac (left, in the middle) and his Serbian counterpart Ivica Dacic (right). Photo: Beta[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Besides the damage caused by Milanovic’s leaked statements, Croatia’s relations with its neighbours were generally poor. Throughout the year, Croatia blocked Serbia from opening new chapters in its EU membership negotiations, which caused reactions on both sides. Read more: Croatia-Serbia Tensions Escalate Into Diplomatic War
President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic’s various statements about Croatia’s neighbours also added oil to the flames, delighting some and infuriating others both at home and in the region. Read more: Croatian President's Year Sees High and Lows
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Defence Minister Damir Krsticevic. Photo: MORH/I. Brand[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
The arrest of a number of Bosnian Croats – suspected of committing war crimes in 1990s war – in the northern Bosnian town of Orasje in late October, caused much excitement in Croatia while a war-crimes investigation into Defence Minister and Vice-Prime Minister Damir Krsticevic also caused anger. Read more: Zagreb’s Meddling in Bosnian Croats’ Arrest Could Backfire
With its northern neighbour, Slovenia, Croatia continued to argue over the maritime border in the northern Adriatic. Slovenia created a fresh dispute when it erected a fence on the border in order to block unwanted refugees in October. Read more: Slovenia's Border Fence Alarms Migrant Experts in Croatia
The fence was viewed in Croatia as unnecessary as in March the so-called “Balkan refugee route”, which included Croatia, was closed. Thereafter the number of migrants crossing the border fell sharply. Read more: Balkan States Close Borders in Domino Effect
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Andrej Plenkovic (left) during his visit to Kiev. Photo: Facebook/Croatian government[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Croatia’s relations with Russia also deteriorated. Shortly after the new government assumed office, Plenkovic visited Ukraine. There he offered Croatia’s own experience in peacefully re-integrating rebel-held territory in 1995 as a possible model for Ukraine, parts of which in the east are under the control of pro-Russian rebels. Russia slated both the initiative and Croatia’s treatment of its Serbian minority. Read more: Russia Snubs Croatia's Peace Initiative on Ukraine
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Port of Dubrovnik in southern Croatia. Photo: Beta[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
On a more optimistic note, the country notched up a likely all-time record for tourism. A major contributor to the Croatian economy, the tourist season flourished partly as a result of terrorist outrages in Turkey, which resulted in holidaymakers diverting to safer Croatia. Read more: Montenegrin, Croatian Tourism Surges as Visitors Shun Turkey

- See more at: Croatia 2016: Political Turbulence and Foreign Feuds :: Balkan Insight

eins der peinlichsten Jahre für Kroatien

Du hast das doppelt gepostet.

- - - Aktualisiert - - -

[h=1]Croatia 2016: Political Turbulence and Foreign Feuds[/h]Tihomir Oreskovic’s government fell after only a few months, the opposition Social Democratic leader resigned, feuds with Serbia worsened - but the tourist season was excellent.

Sven Milekic
BIRN
Zagreb
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Tihomir Oreskovic presenting government. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Daniel Kasap/DS[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
After different twists and turns that followed parliamentary elections in November 2015, the new centre-right government was voted in the parliament last January.
Although the government was led by the main party on the centre-right, the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, the kingmaker was a newcomer to national politics, the Bridge of the Independent Lists, MOST, with Bozo Petrov as its leader. Read More: Croatia's New Cabinet Draws Mixed Response
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Tihomir Oreskovic. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Damir SENCAR/MO[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
The government represented a political experiment as neither HDZ nor MOST took the position of prime minister. Instead, the HDZ proposed Tihomir Oreskovic, a non-party candidate with a background in the pharmaceutical industry with no political experience. He became the new Prime Minister.
His government soon turned out to be unstable however. Some experts later claimed that with no party of his own to rely on, he had been “doomed from the start”. Read more: Croatia's Ex-PM Was Doomed From Start, Experts Say
The trouble started in March when Oreskovic tried to assert his independence from the HDZ, which led to the tension between the HDZ on one side and MOST and Oreskovic on the other. Read more: Rifts Pose Threat to Croatia's Unwieldy Coalition
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Oreskovic's government in session. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Denis CERIC/MO[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
After blunders in the process of appointing new ministers and with no clear vision about how to boost the economy and reduce the budget deficit, on May 11, the credit ranking agency Moody’s lowered Croatia’s credit ranking for borrowing in foreign currencies from Ba1 to Ba2, with a negative outlook.
Moody’s argued that Croatia’s public debt, then about 86 per cent of its annual GDP, was far above other countries with a Ba1 credit ranking, whose public debts are worth an average of 45 per cent of GDP. Read more: Creditors Lose Faith in Croatia’s ‘Expert’ Govt
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic and Tihomir Oreskovic discussing on Dragan Lozancic's faith. Photo: Office of the President[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Oreskovic had also entered into a dispute with President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic – despite both being close to HDZ – regarding the removal of the head of Security and Intelligence Agency, SOA, Dragan Lozancic. Read more: Croatian Security Chief’s Fate Hangs in Balance
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]War veterans' minister Mijo Crnoja's registered address. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Damir SENCAR/MO[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Some ministers in the government attracted unnecessary attention. The Minister for War Veterans, Mijo Crnoja, drew ridicule for having proposed the creation of a register of “national traitors”. Read more: Croatian ‘Traitors’ Defy New War Veterans Minister

[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Crnoja resigning. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Daniel KASAP/DS[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
After hostile coverage in the media he stepped down after less than six days in office. Read more: Protests Force out Croatian Veterans' Minister
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Zlatko Hasanbegovic. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Damir SENCAR/DS[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Culture Minister Zlatko Hasanbegovic was even more controversial. The weekly newspaper Novosti discovered that he had written articles for an extreme right-wing bulletin as a student in the 1990s and had praised the World War II Fascist Ustasa movement. Despite the controversies surrounding him, Hasanbegovic remained in office. Read more: Culture Minister Who Left His Mark on Croatia
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Tomislav Karamarko and Ana Saric Karamarko. Photo: Facebook[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
The weekly newspaper Nacional in May meanwhile broke the news that Ana Saric Karamarko, wife of the HDZ president and Vice Prime Minister, Tomislav Karamarko, had received over 60,000 euros to counsel a lobbyist for the Hungarian energy firm MOL, with which Croatia is in dispute. MOL and Croatia are undergoing international arbitration over the Croatian energy company INA. Read more: Croatia's Vice PM Quizzed Over Wife's 'Links to MOL
The two ruling parties had been tussling and threatening early elections almost since the government was formed but the controversy over Karamarko’s wife brought matters to a head. In the end, MOST joined the opposition parties in supporting the no-confidence vote in Karamarko. Read more: Croatian Govt Threatened as Ruling Coalition Withers
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Oreskovic talking to the parliament before the non-confidence vote. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Damir SENCAR/DS[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
This brought Oreskovic, Petrov and Karamarko into further conflict. In the meantime, the parliament's Commission for Conflicts of Interest ruled that Karamarko had been in a conflict of interest over his wife’s relations to MOL lobbyist.
In mid-June, the HDZ filed a motion of no-confidence in Oreskovic after which the government fell. Read more: Croatian Govt Falls After MPs Oust Oreskovic
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]President Grabar Kitarovic calling for early elections. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Lana SLIVAR DOMINIC/MO[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
The President then called early elections for September. Read more: Croatia President Backs Early Elections
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Tomislav Karamarko resigning as HDZ president. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/DARIO GRZELJ/EV/MO[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Karamarko resigned as HDZ president a few days later. Read more: Karamarko Resigns as Croatian Democratic Union President
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Andrej Plenkovic. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Lana SLIVAR DOMINIC/MO[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
With Karamarko stepping down, the HDZ held internal elections in late July, which the party’s MEP, Andrej Plenkovic, won as the only candidate standing. Plenkovic promised a more moderate, centrist direction in contrast to Karamarko’s more right-wing approach. Read more: Andrej Plenkovic: Centrist in the Running for Croatia’s HDZ
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Zoran Milanovic. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Lana SLIVAR DOMINIC/DS[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
With general elections scheduled for September 11, the campaign got underway in August. After Plenkovic took part in a TV duel in August with Zoran Milanovic, president of the opposition centre-left Social Democratic Party, SDP, the latter came under the spotlight over leaked audios of a closed meeting he had held with war veterans in which he described Bosnia and Herzegovina as a failed state and the Serbian political leadership as “arrogant”. The leaked report caused tensions in the region. Read more: Croatia Ex-PM’s Leaked ‘Insults’ Anger Bosnia, Serbia
Although the majority of opinion polls suggested the SDP would win the election, the HDZ won 61 of the 151 seats in the parliament while the SDP-led coalition won 54.
The HDZ then formed a new government with MOST and MPs representing national minorities under Plenkovic as Prime Minister. Read more: Croatia Parliament Votes in Plenkovic's New Govt
After two election defeats in only ten months, Milanovic on September 12 said he would not run in party elections that were scheduled to take place within five months. Read more: Milanovic to Quit as Leader of Croatian Leftists
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Davor Bernardic. Photo: Facebook/Davor Bernardic[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
With seven candidates standing in the SDP leadership election organised in late November, 36-year-old Davor Bernardic won the second round. Read more: Davor Bernardic: Social Democrat Leader Unlikely to Turn Left
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Croatian foreign minister Miro Kovac (left, in the middle) and his Serbian counterpart Ivica Dacic (right). Photo: Beta[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Besides the damage caused by Milanovic’s leaked statements, Croatia’s relations with its neighbours were generally poor. Throughout the year, Croatia blocked Serbia from opening new chapters in its EU membership negotiations, which caused reactions on both sides. Read more: Croatia-Serbia Tensions Escalate Into Diplomatic War
President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic’s various statements about Croatia’s neighbours also added oil to the flames, delighting some and infuriating others both at home and in the region. Read more: Croatian President's Year Sees High and Lows
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Defence Minister Damir Krsticevic. Photo: MORH/I. Brand[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
The arrest of a number of Bosnian Croats – suspected of committing war crimes in 1990s war – in the northern Bosnian town of Orasje in late October, caused much excitement in Croatia while a war-crimes investigation into Defence Minister and Vice-Prime Minister Damir Krsticevic also caused anger. Read more: Zagreb’s Meddling in Bosnian Croats’ Arrest Could Backfire
With its northern neighbour, Slovenia, Croatia continued to argue over the maritime border in the northern Adriatic. Slovenia created a fresh dispute when it erected a fence on the border in order to block unwanted refugees in October. Read more: Slovenia's Border Fence Alarms Migrant Experts in Croatia
The fence was viewed in Croatia as unnecessary as in March the so-called “Balkan refugee route”, which included Croatia, was closed. Thereafter the number of migrants crossing the border fell sharply. Read more: Balkan States Close Borders in Domino Effect
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Andrej Plenkovic (left) during his visit to Kiev. Photo: Facebook/Croatian government[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Croatia’s relations with Russia also deteriorated. Shortly after the new government assumed office, Plenkovic visited Ukraine. There he offered Croatia’s own experience in peacefully re-integrating rebel-held territory in 1995 as a possible model for Ukraine, parts of which in the east are under the control of pro-Russian rebels. Russia slated both the initiative and Croatia’s treatment of its Serbian minority. Read more: Russia Snubs Croatia's Peace Initiative on Ukraine
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Port of Dubrovnik in southern Croatia. Photo: Beta[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
On a more optimistic note, the country notched up a likely all-time record for tourism. A major contributor to the Croatian economy, the tourist season flourished partly as a result of terrorist outrages in Turkey, which resulted in holidaymakers diverting to safer Croatia. Read more: Montenegrin, Croatian Tourism Surges as Visitors Shun Turkey

- See more at: Croatia 2016: Political Turbulence and Foreign Feuds :: Balkan Insight

eins der peinlichsten Jahre für Kroatien

- - - Aktualisiert - - -

[h=1]Croatia 2016: Political Turbulence and Foreign Feuds[/h]Tihomir Oreskovic’s government fell after only a few months, the opposition Social Democratic leader resigned, feuds with Serbia worsened - but the tourist season was excellent.

Sven Milekic
BIRN
Zagreb
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Tihomir Oreskovic presenting government. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Daniel Kasap/DS[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
After different twists and turns that followed parliamentary elections in November 2015, the new centre-right government was voted in the parliament last January.
Although the government was led by the main party on the centre-right, the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, the kingmaker was a newcomer to national politics, the Bridge of the Independent Lists, MOST, with Bozo Petrov as its leader. Read More: Croatia's New Cabinet Draws Mixed Response
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Tihomir Oreskovic. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Damir SENCAR/MO[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
The government represented a political experiment as neither HDZ nor MOST took the position of prime minister. Instead, the HDZ proposed Tihomir Oreskovic, a non-party candidate with a background in the pharmaceutical industry with no political experience. He became the new Prime Minister.
His government soon turned out to be unstable however. Some experts later claimed that with no party of his own to rely on, he had been “doomed from the start”. Read more: Croatia's Ex-PM Was Doomed From Start, Experts Say
The trouble started in March when Oreskovic tried to assert his independence from the HDZ, which led to the tension between the HDZ on one side and MOST and Oreskovic on the other. Read more: Rifts Pose Threat to Croatia's Unwieldy Coalition
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Oreskovic's government in session. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Denis CERIC/MO[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
After blunders in the process of appointing new ministers and with no clear vision about how to boost the economy and reduce the budget deficit, on May 11, the credit ranking agency Moody’s lowered Croatia’s credit ranking for borrowing in foreign currencies from Ba1 to Ba2, with a negative outlook.
Moody’s argued that Croatia’s public debt, then about 86 per cent of its annual GDP, was far above other countries with a Ba1 credit ranking, whose public debts are worth an average of 45 per cent of GDP. Read more: Creditors Lose Faith in Croatia’s ‘Expert’ Govt
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic and Tihomir Oreskovic discussing on Dragan Lozancic's faith. Photo: Office of the President[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Oreskovic had also entered into a dispute with President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic – despite both being close to HDZ – regarding the removal of the head of Security and Intelligence Agency, SOA, Dragan Lozancic. Read more: Croatian Security Chief’s Fate Hangs in Balance
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]War veterans' minister Mijo Crnoja's registered address. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Damir SENCAR/MO[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Some ministers in the government attracted unnecessary attention. The Minister for War Veterans, Mijo Crnoja, drew ridicule for having proposed the creation of a register of “national traitors”. Read more: Croatian ‘Traitors’ Defy New War Veterans Minister

[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Crnoja resigning. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Daniel KASAP/DS[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
After hostile coverage in the media he stepped down after less than six days in office. Read more: Protests Force out Croatian Veterans' Minister
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Zlatko Hasanbegovic. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Damir SENCAR/DS[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Culture Minister Zlatko Hasanbegovic was even more controversial. The weekly newspaper Novosti discovered that he had written articles for an extreme right-wing bulletin as a student in the 1990s and had praised the World War II Fascist Ustasa movement. Despite the controversies surrounding him, Hasanbegovic remained in office. Read more: Culture Minister Who Left His Mark on Croatia
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Tomislav Karamarko and Ana Saric Karamarko. Photo: Facebook[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
The weekly newspaper Nacional in May meanwhile broke the news that Ana Saric Karamarko, wife of the HDZ president and Vice Prime Minister, Tomislav Karamarko, had received over 60,000 euros to counsel a lobbyist for the Hungarian energy firm MOL, with which Croatia is in dispute. MOL and Croatia are undergoing international arbitration over the Croatian energy company INA. Read more: Croatia's Vice PM Quizzed Over Wife's 'Links to MOL
The two ruling parties had been tussling and threatening early elections almost since the government was formed but the controversy over Karamarko’s wife brought matters to a head. In the end, MOST joined the opposition parties in supporting the no-confidence vote in Karamarko. Read more: Croatian Govt Threatened as Ruling Coalition Withers
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Oreskovic talking to the parliament before the non-confidence vote. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Damir SENCAR/DS[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
This brought Oreskovic, Petrov and Karamarko into further conflict. In the meantime, the parliament's Commission for Conflicts of Interest ruled that Karamarko had been in a conflict of interest over his wife’s relations to MOL lobbyist.
In mid-June, the HDZ filed a motion of no-confidence in Oreskovic after which the government fell. Read more: Croatian Govt Falls After MPs Oust Oreskovic
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]President Grabar Kitarovic calling for early elections. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Lana SLIVAR DOMINIC/MO[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
The President then called early elections for September. Read more: Croatia President Backs Early Elections
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Tomislav Karamarko resigning as HDZ president. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/DARIO GRZELJ/EV/MO[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Karamarko resigned as HDZ president a few days later. Read more: Karamarko Resigns as Croatian Democratic Union President
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Andrej Plenkovic. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Lana SLIVAR DOMINIC/MO[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
With Karamarko stepping down, the HDZ held internal elections in late July, which the party’s MEP, Andrej Plenkovic, won as the only candidate standing. Plenkovic promised a more moderate, centrist direction in contrast to Karamarko’s more right-wing approach. Read more: Andrej Plenkovic: Centrist in the Running for Croatia’s HDZ
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Zoran Milanovic. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Lana SLIVAR DOMINIC/DS[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
With general elections scheduled for September 11, the campaign got underway in August. After Plenkovic took part in a TV duel in August with Zoran Milanovic, president of the opposition centre-left Social Democratic Party, SDP, the latter came under the spotlight over leaked audios of a closed meeting he had held with war veterans in which he described Bosnia and Herzegovina as a failed state and the Serbian political leadership as “arrogant”. The leaked report caused tensions in the region. Read more: Croatia Ex-PM’s Leaked ‘Insults’ Anger Bosnia, Serbia
Although the majority of opinion polls suggested the SDP would win the election, the HDZ won 61 of the 151 seats in the parliament while the SDP-led coalition won 54.
The HDZ then formed a new government with MOST and MPs representing national minorities under Plenkovic as Prime Minister. Read more: Croatia Parliament Votes in Plenkovic's New Govt
After two election defeats in only ten months, Milanovic on September 12 said he would not run in party elections that were scheduled to take place within five months. Read more: Milanovic to Quit as Leader of Croatian Leftists
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Davor Bernardic. Photo: Facebook/Davor Bernardic[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
With seven candidates standing in the SDP leadership election organised in late November, 36-year-old Davor Bernardic won the second round. Read more: Davor Bernardic: Social Democrat Leader Unlikely to Turn Left
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Croatian foreign minister Miro Kovac (left, in the middle) and his Serbian counterpart Ivica Dacic (right). Photo: Beta[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Besides the damage caused by Milanovic’s leaked statements, Croatia’s relations with its neighbours were generally poor. Throughout the year, Croatia blocked Serbia from opening new chapters in its EU membership negotiations, which caused reactions on both sides. Read more: Croatia-Serbia Tensions Escalate Into Diplomatic War
President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic’s various statements about Croatia’s neighbours also added oil to the flames, delighting some and infuriating others both at home and in the region. Read more: Croatian President's Year Sees High and Lows
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Defence Minister Damir Krsticevic. Photo: MORH/I. Brand[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
The arrest of a number of Bosnian Croats – suspected of committing war crimes in 1990s war – in the northern Bosnian town of Orasje in late October, caused much excitement in Croatia while a war-crimes investigation into Defence Minister and Vice-Prime Minister Damir Krsticevic also caused anger. Read more: Zagreb’s Meddling in Bosnian Croats’ Arrest Could Backfire
With its northern neighbour, Slovenia, Croatia continued to argue over the maritime border in the northern Adriatic. Slovenia created a fresh dispute when it erected a fence on the border in order to block unwanted refugees in October. Read more: Slovenia's Border Fence Alarms Migrant Experts in Croatia
The fence was viewed in Croatia as unnecessary as in March the so-called “Balkan refugee route”, which included Croatia, was closed. Thereafter the number of migrants crossing the border fell sharply. Read more: Balkan States Close Borders in Domino Effect
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Andrej Plenkovic (left) during his visit to Kiev. Photo: Facebook/Croatian government[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Croatia’s relations with Russia also deteriorated. Shortly after the new government assumed office, Plenkovic visited Ukraine. There he offered Croatia’s own experience in peacefully re-integrating rebel-held territory in 1995 as a possible model for Ukraine, parts of which in the east are under the control of pro-Russian rebels. Russia slated both the initiative and Croatia’s treatment of its Serbian minority. Read more: Russia Snubs Croatia's Peace Initiative on Ukraine
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Port of Dubrovnik in southern Croatia. Photo: Beta[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
On a more optimistic note, the country notched up a likely all-time record for tourism. A major contributor to the Croatian economy, the tourist season flourished partly as a result of terrorist outrages in Turkey, which resulted in holidaymakers diverting to safer Croatia. Read more: Montenegrin, Croatian Tourism Surges as Visitors Shun Turkey

- See more at: http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/croatia-2016-year-of-political-turbulence-12-15-2016#sthash.bkjdV4OC.dpuf

eins der peinlichsten Jahre für Kroatien

Du hast das doppelt gepostet.

- - - Aktualisiert - - -

[h=1]Croatia 2016: Political Turbulence and Foreign Feuds[/h]Tihomir Oreskovic’s government fell after only a few months, the opposition Social Democratic leader resigned, feuds with Serbia worsened - but the tourist season was excellent.

Sven Milekic
BIRN
Zagreb
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Tihomir Oreskovic presenting government. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Daniel Kasap/DS[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
After different twists and turns that followed parliamentary elections in November 2015, the new centre-right government was voted in the parliament last January.
Although the government was led by the main party on the centre-right, the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, the kingmaker was a newcomer to national politics, the Bridge of the Independent Lists, MOST, with Bozo Petrov as its leader. Read More: Croatia's New Cabinet Draws Mixed Response
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Tihomir Oreskovic. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Damir SENCAR/MO[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
The government represented a political experiment as neither HDZ nor MOST took the position of prime minister. Instead, the HDZ proposed Tihomir Oreskovic, a non-party candidate with a background in the pharmaceutical industry with no political experience. He became the new Prime Minister.
His government soon turned out to be unstable however. Some experts later claimed that with no party of his own to rely on, he had been “doomed from the start”. Read more: Croatia's Ex-PM Was Doomed From Start, Experts Say
The trouble started in March when Oreskovic tried to assert his independence from the HDZ, which led to the tension between the HDZ on one side and MOST and Oreskovic on the other. Read more: Rifts Pose Threat to Croatia's Unwieldy Coalition
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Oreskovic's government in session. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Denis CERIC/MO[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
After blunders in the process of appointing new ministers and with no clear vision about how to boost the economy and reduce the budget deficit, on May 11, the credit ranking agency Moody’s lowered Croatia’s credit ranking for borrowing in foreign currencies from Ba1 to Ba2, with a negative outlook.
Moody’s argued that Croatia’s public debt, then about 86 per cent of its annual GDP, was far above other countries with a Ba1 credit ranking, whose public debts are worth an average of 45 per cent of GDP. Read more: Creditors Lose Faith in Croatia’s ‘Expert’ Govt
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic and Tihomir Oreskovic discussing on Dragan Lozancic's faith. Photo: Office of the President[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Oreskovic had also entered into a dispute with President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic – despite both being close to HDZ – regarding the removal of the head of Security and Intelligence Agency, SOA, Dragan Lozancic. Read more: Croatian Security Chief’s Fate Hangs in Balance
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]War veterans' minister Mijo Crnoja's registered address. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Damir SENCAR/MO[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Some ministers in the government attracted unnecessary attention. The Minister for War Veterans, Mijo Crnoja, drew ridicule for having proposed the creation of a register of “national traitors”. Read more: Croatian ‘Traitors’ Defy New War Veterans Minister

[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Crnoja resigning. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Daniel KASAP/DS[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
After hostile coverage in the media he stepped down after less than six days in office. Read more: Protests Force out Croatian Veterans' Minister
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Zlatko Hasanbegovic. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Damir SENCAR/DS[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Culture Minister Zlatko Hasanbegovic was even more controversial. The weekly newspaper Novosti discovered that he had written articles for an extreme right-wing bulletin as a student in the 1990s and had praised the World War II Fascist Ustasa movement. Despite the controversies surrounding him, Hasanbegovic remained in office. Read more: Culture Minister Who Left His Mark on Croatia
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Tomislav Karamarko and Ana Saric Karamarko. Photo: Facebook[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
The weekly newspaper Nacional in May meanwhile broke the news that Ana Saric Karamarko, wife of the HDZ president and Vice Prime Minister, Tomislav Karamarko, had received over 60,000 euros to counsel a lobbyist for the Hungarian energy firm MOL, with which Croatia is in dispute. MOL and Croatia are undergoing international arbitration over the Croatian energy company INA. Read more: Croatia's Vice PM Quizzed Over Wife's 'Links to MOL
The two ruling parties had been tussling and threatening early elections almost since the government was formed but the controversy over Karamarko’s wife brought matters to a head. In the end, MOST joined the opposition parties in supporting the no-confidence vote in Karamarko. Read more: Croatian Govt Threatened as Ruling Coalition Withers
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Oreskovic talking to the parliament before the non-confidence vote. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Damir SENCAR/DS[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
This brought Oreskovic, Petrov and Karamarko into further conflict. In the meantime, the parliament's Commission for Conflicts of Interest ruled that Karamarko had been in a conflict of interest over his wife’s relations to MOL lobbyist.
In mid-June, the HDZ filed a motion of no-confidence in Oreskovic after which the government fell. Read more: Croatian Govt Falls After MPs Oust Oreskovic
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]President Grabar Kitarovic calling for early elections. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Lana SLIVAR DOMINIC/MO[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
The President then called early elections for September. Read more: Croatia President Backs Early Elections
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Tomislav Karamarko resigning as HDZ president. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/DARIO GRZELJ/EV/MO[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Karamarko resigned as HDZ president a few days later. Read more: Karamarko Resigns as Croatian Democratic Union President
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Andrej Plenkovic. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Lana SLIVAR DOMINIC/MO[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
With Karamarko stepping down, the HDZ held internal elections in late July, which the party’s MEP, Andrej Plenkovic, won as the only candidate standing. Plenkovic promised a more moderate, centrist direction in contrast to Karamarko’s more right-wing approach. Read more: Andrej Plenkovic: Centrist in the Running for Croatia’s HDZ
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Zoran Milanovic. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Lana SLIVAR DOMINIC/DS[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
With general elections scheduled for September 11, the campaign got underway in August. After Plenkovic took part in a TV duel in August with Zoran Milanovic, president of the opposition centre-left Social Democratic Party, SDP, the latter came under the spotlight over leaked audios of a closed meeting he had held with war veterans in which he described Bosnia and Herzegovina as a failed state and the Serbian political leadership as “arrogant”. The leaked report caused tensions in the region. Read more: Croatia Ex-PM’s Leaked ‘Insults’ Anger Bosnia, Serbia
Although the majority of opinion polls suggested the SDP would win the election, the HDZ won 61 of the 151 seats in the parliament while the SDP-led coalition won 54.
The HDZ then formed a new government with MOST and MPs representing national minorities under Plenkovic as Prime Minister. Read more: Croatia Parliament Votes in Plenkovic's New Govt
After two election defeats in only ten months, Milanovic on September 12 said he would not run in party elections that were scheduled to take place within five months. Read more: Milanovic to Quit as Leader of Croatian Leftists
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Davor Bernardic. Photo: Facebook/Davor Bernardic[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
With seven candidates standing in the SDP leadership election organised in late November, 36-year-old Davor Bernardic won the second round. Read more: Davor Bernardic: Social Democrat Leader Unlikely to Turn Left
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Croatian foreign minister Miro Kovac (left, in the middle) and his Serbian counterpart Ivica Dacic (right). Photo: Beta[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Besides the damage caused by Milanovic’s leaked statements, Croatia’s relations with its neighbours were generally poor. Throughout the year, Croatia blocked Serbia from opening new chapters in its EU membership negotiations, which caused reactions on both sides. Read more: Croatia-Serbia Tensions Escalate Into Diplomatic War
President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic’s various statements about Croatia’s neighbours also added oil to the flames, delighting some and infuriating others both at home and in the region. Read more: Croatian President's Year Sees High and Lows
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Defence Minister Damir Krsticevic. Photo: MORH/I. Brand[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
The arrest of a number of Bosnian Croats – suspected of committing war crimes in 1990s war – in the northern Bosnian town of Orasje in late October, caused much excitement in Croatia while a war-crimes investigation into Defence Minister and Vice-Prime Minister Damir Krsticevic also caused anger. Read more: Zagreb’s Meddling in Bosnian Croats’ Arrest Could Backfire
With its northern neighbour, Slovenia, Croatia continued to argue over the maritime border in the northern Adriatic. Slovenia created a fresh dispute when it erected a fence on the border in order to block unwanted refugees in October. Read more: Slovenia's Border Fence Alarms Migrant Experts in Croatia
The fence was viewed in Croatia as unnecessary as in March the so-called “Balkan refugee route”, which included Croatia, was closed. Thereafter the number of migrants crossing the border fell sharply. Read more: Balkan States Close Borders in Domino Effect
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Andrej Plenkovic (left) during his visit to Kiev. Photo: Facebook/Croatian government[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Croatia’s relations with Russia also deteriorated. Shortly after the new government assumed office, Plenkovic visited Ukraine. There he offered Croatia’s own experience in peacefully re-integrating rebel-held territory in 1995 as a possible model for Ukraine, parts of which in the east are under the control of pro-Russian rebels. Russia slated both the initiative and Croatia’s treatment of its Serbian minority. Read more: Russia Snubs Croatia's Peace Initiative on Ukraine
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Port of Dubrovnik in southern Croatia. Photo: Beta[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
On a more optimistic note, the country notched up a likely all-time record for tourism. A major contributor to the Croatian economy, the tourist season flourished partly as a result of terrorist outrages in Turkey, which resulted in holidaymakers diverting to safer Croatia. Read more: Montenegrin, Croatian Tourism Surges as Visitors Shun Turkey

- See more at: Croatia 2016: Political Turbulence and Foreign Feuds :: Balkan Insight

eins der peinlichsten Jahre für Kroatien

- - - Aktualisiert - - -

[h=1]Croatia 2016: Political Turbulence and Foreign Feuds[/h]Tihomir Oreskovic’s government fell after only a few months, the opposition Social Democratic leader resigned, feuds with Serbia worsened - but the tourist season was excellent.

Sven Milekic
BIRN
Zagreb
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Tihomir Oreskovic presenting government. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Daniel Kasap/DS[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
After different twists and turns that followed parliamentary elections in November 2015, the new centre-right government was voted in the parliament last January.
Although the government was led by the main party on the centre-right, the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, the kingmaker was a newcomer to national politics, the Bridge of the Independent Lists, MOST, with Bozo Petrov as its leader. Read More: Croatia's New Cabinet Draws Mixed Response
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Tihomir Oreskovic. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Damir SENCAR/MO[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
The government represented a political experiment as neither HDZ nor MOST took the position of prime minister. Instead, the HDZ proposed Tihomir Oreskovic, a non-party candidate with a background in the pharmaceutical industry with no political experience. He became the new Prime Minister.
His government soon turned out to be unstable however. Some experts later claimed that with no party of his own to rely on, he had been “doomed from the start”. Read more: Croatia's Ex-PM Was Doomed From Start, Experts Say
The trouble started in March when Oreskovic tried to assert his independence from the HDZ, which led to the tension between the HDZ on one side and MOST and Oreskovic on the other. Read more: Rifts Pose Threat to Croatia's Unwieldy Coalition
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Oreskovic's government in session. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Denis CERIC/MO[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
After blunders in the process of appointing new ministers and with no clear vision about how to boost the economy and reduce the budget deficit, on May 11, the credit ranking agency Moody’s lowered Croatia’s credit ranking for borrowing in foreign currencies from Ba1 to Ba2, with a negative outlook.
Moody’s argued that Croatia’s public debt, then about 86 per cent of its annual GDP, was far above other countries with a Ba1 credit ranking, whose public debts are worth an average of 45 per cent of GDP. Read more: Creditors Lose Faith in Croatia’s ‘Expert’ Govt
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic and Tihomir Oreskovic discussing on Dragan Lozancic's faith. Photo: Office of the President[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Oreskovic had also entered into a dispute with President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic – despite both being close to HDZ – regarding the removal of the head of Security and Intelligence Agency, SOA, Dragan Lozancic. Read more: Croatian Security Chief’s Fate Hangs in Balance
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]War veterans' minister Mijo Crnoja's registered address. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Damir SENCAR/MO[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Some ministers in the government attracted unnecessary attention. The Minister for War Veterans, Mijo Crnoja, drew ridicule for having proposed the creation of a register of “national traitors”. Read more: Croatian ‘Traitors’ Defy New War Veterans Minister

[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Crnoja resigning. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Daniel KASAP/DS[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
After hostile coverage in the media he stepped down after less than six days in office. Read more: Protests Force out Croatian Veterans' Minister
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Zlatko Hasanbegovic. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Damir SENCAR/DS[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Culture Minister Zlatko Hasanbegovic was even more controversial. The weekly newspaper Novosti discovered that he had written articles for an extreme right-wing bulletin as a student in the 1990s and had praised the World War II Fascist Ustasa movement. Despite the controversies surrounding him, Hasanbegovic remained in office. Read more: Culture Minister Who Left His Mark on Croatia
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Tomislav Karamarko and Ana Saric Karamarko. Photo: Facebook[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
The weekly newspaper Nacional in May meanwhile broke the news that Ana Saric Karamarko, wife of the HDZ president and Vice Prime Minister, Tomislav Karamarko, had received over 60,000 euros to counsel a lobbyist for the Hungarian energy firm MOL, with which Croatia is in dispute. MOL and Croatia are undergoing international arbitration over the Croatian energy company INA. Read more: Croatia's Vice PM Quizzed Over Wife's 'Links to MOL
The two ruling parties had been tussling and threatening early elections almost since the government was formed but the controversy over Karamarko’s wife brought matters to a head. In the end, MOST joined the opposition parties in supporting the no-confidence vote in Karamarko. Read more: Croatian Govt Threatened as Ruling Coalition Withers
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Oreskovic talking to the parliament before the non-confidence vote. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Damir SENCAR/DS[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
This brought Oreskovic, Petrov and Karamarko into further conflict. In the meantime, the parliament's Commission for Conflicts of Interest ruled that Karamarko had been in a conflict of interest over his wife’s relations to MOL lobbyist.
In mid-June, the HDZ filed a motion of no-confidence in Oreskovic after which the government fell. Read more: Croatian Govt Falls After MPs Oust Oreskovic
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]President Grabar Kitarovic calling for early elections. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Lana SLIVAR DOMINIC/MO[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
The President then called early elections for September. Read more: Croatia President Backs Early Elections
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Tomislav Karamarko resigning as HDZ president. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/DARIO GRZELJ/EV/MO[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Karamarko resigned as HDZ president a few days later. Read more: Karamarko Resigns as Croatian Democratic Union President
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Andrej Plenkovic. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Lana SLIVAR DOMINIC/MO[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
With Karamarko stepping down, the HDZ held internal elections in late July, which the party’s MEP, Andrej Plenkovic, won as the only candidate standing. Plenkovic promised a more moderate, centrist direction in contrast to Karamarko’s more right-wing approach. Read more: Andrej Plenkovic: Centrist in the Running for Croatia’s HDZ
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Zoran Milanovic. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Lana SLIVAR DOMINIC/DS[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
With general elections scheduled for September 11, the campaign got underway in August. After Plenkovic took part in a TV duel in August with Zoran Milanovic, president of the opposition centre-left Social Democratic Party, SDP, the latter came under the spotlight over leaked audios of a closed meeting he had held with war veterans in which he described Bosnia and Herzegovina as a failed state and the Serbian political leadership as “arrogant”. The leaked report caused tensions in the region. Read more: Croatia Ex-PM’s Leaked ‘Insults’ Anger Bosnia, Serbia
Although the majority of opinion polls suggested the SDP would win the election, the HDZ won 61 of the 151 seats in the parliament while the SDP-led coalition won 54.
The HDZ then formed a new government with MOST and MPs representing national minorities under Plenkovic as Prime Minister. Read more: Croatia Parliament Votes in Plenkovic's New Govt
After two election defeats in only ten months, Milanovic on September 12 said he would not run in party elections that were scheduled to take place within five months. Read more: Milanovic to Quit as Leader of Croatian Leftists
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Davor Bernardic. Photo: Facebook/Davor Bernardic[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
With seven candidates standing in the SDP leadership election organised in late November, 36-year-old Davor Bernardic won the second round. Read more: Davor Bernardic: Social Democrat Leader Unlikely to Turn Left
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Croatian foreign minister Miro Kovac (left, in the middle) and his Serbian counterpart Ivica Dacic (right). Photo: Beta[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Besides the damage caused by Milanovic’s leaked statements, Croatia’s relations with its neighbours were generally poor. Throughout the year, Croatia blocked Serbia from opening new chapters in its EU membership negotiations, which caused reactions on both sides. Read more: Croatia-Serbia Tensions Escalate Into Diplomatic War
President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic’s various statements about Croatia’s neighbours also added oil to the flames, delighting some and infuriating others both at home and in the region. Read more: Croatian President's Year Sees High and Lows
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Defence Minister Damir Krsticevic. Photo: MORH/I. Brand[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
The arrest of a number of Bosnian Croats – suspected of committing war crimes in 1990s war – in the northern Bosnian town of Orasje in late October, caused much excitement in Croatia while a war-crimes investigation into Defence Minister and Vice-Prime Minister Damir Krsticevic also caused anger. Read more: Zagreb’s Meddling in Bosnian Croats’ Arrest Could Backfire
With its northern neighbour, Slovenia, Croatia continued to argue over the maritime border in the northern Adriatic. Slovenia created a fresh dispute when it erected a fence on the border in order to block unwanted refugees in October. Read more: Slovenia's Border Fence Alarms Migrant Experts in Croatia
The fence was viewed in Croatia as unnecessary as in March the so-called “Balkan refugee route”, which included Croatia, was closed. Thereafter the number of migrants crossing the border fell sharply. Read more: Balkan States Close Borders in Domino Effect
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Andrej Plenkovic (left) during his visit to Kiev. Photo: Facebook/Croatian government[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Croatia’s relations with Russia also deteriorated. Shortly after the new government assumed office, Plenkovic visited Ukraine. There he offered Croatia’s own experience in peacefully re-integrating rebel-held territory in 1995 as a possible model for Ukraine, parts of which in the east are under the control of pro-Russian rebels. Russia slated both the initiative and Croatia’s treatment of its Serbian minority. Read more: Russia Snubs Croatia's Peace Initiative on Ukraine
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Port of Dubrovnik in southern Croatia. Photo: Beta[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
On a more optimistic note, the country notched up a likely all-time record for tourism. A major contributor to the Croatian economy, the tourist season flourished partly as a result of terrorist outrages in Turkey, which resulted in holidaymakers diverting to safer Croatia. Read more: Montenegrin, Croatian Tourism Surges as Visitors Shun Turkey

- See more at: http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/croatia-2016-year-of-political-turbulence-12-15-2016#sthash.bkjdV4OC.dpuf

eins der peinlichsten Jahre für Kroatien

Du hast das doppelt gepostet.

- - - Aktualisiert - - -

[h=1]Croatia 2016: Political Turbulence and Foreign Feuds[/h]Tihomir Oreskovic’s government fell after only a few months, the opposition Social Democratic leader resigned, feuds with Serbia worsened - but the tourist season was excellent.

Sven Milekic
BIRN
Zagreb
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Tihomir Oreskovic presenting government. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Daniel Kasap/DS[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
After different twists and turns that followed parliamentary elections in November 2015, the new centre-right government was voted in the parliament last January.
Although the government was led by the main party on the centre-right, the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, the kingmaker was a newcomer to national politics, the Bridge of the Independent Lists, MOST, with Bozo Petrov as its leader. Read More: Croatia's New Cabinet Draws Mixed Response
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Tihomir Oreskovic. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Damir SENCAR/MO[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
The government represented a political experiment as neither HDZ nor MOST took the position of prime minister. Instead, the HDZ proposed Tihomir Oreskovic, a non-party candidate with a background in the pharmaceutical industry with no political experience. He became the new Prime Minister.
His government soon turned out to be unstable however. Some experts later claimed that with no party of his own to rely on, he had been “doomed from the start”. Read more: Croatia's Ex-PM Was Doomed From Start, Experts Say
The trouble started in March when Oreskovic tried to assert his independence from the HDZ, which led to the tension between the HDZ on one side and MOST and Oreskovic on the other. Read more: Rifts Pose Threat to Croatia's Unwieldy Coalition
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Oreskovic's government in session. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Denis CERIC/MO[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
After blunders in the process of appointing new ministers and with no clear vision about how to boost the economy and reduce the budget deficit, on May 11, the credit ranking agency Moody’s lowered Croatia’s credit ranking for borrowing in foreign currencies from Ba1 to Ba2, with a negative outlook.
Moody’s argued that Croatia’s public debt, then about 86 per cent of its annual GDP, was far above other countries with a Ba1 credit ranking, whose public debts are worth an average of 45 per cent of GDP. Read more: Creditors Lose Faith in Croatia’s ‘Expert’ Govt
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic and Tihomir Oreskovic discussing on Dragan Lozancic's faith. Photo: Office of the President[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Oreskovic had also entered into a dispute with President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic – despite both being close to HDZ – regarding the removal of the head of Security and Intelligence Agency, SOA, Dragan Lozancic. Read more: Croatian Security Chief’s Fate Hangs in Balance
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]War veterans' minister Mijo Crnoja's registered address. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Damir SENCAR/MO[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Some ministers in the government attracted unnecessary attention. The Minister for War Veterans, Mijo Crnoja, drew ridicule for having proposed the creation of a register of “national traitors”. Read more: Croatian ‘Traitors’ Defy New War Veterans Minister

[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Crnoja resigning. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Daniel KASAP/DS[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
After hostile coverage in the media he stepped down after less than six days in office. Read more: Protests Force out Croatian Veterans' Minister
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Zlatko Hasanbegovic. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Damir SENCAR/DS[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Culture Minister Zlatko Hasanbegovic was even more controversial. The weekly newspaper Novosti discovered that he had written articles for an extreme right-wing bulletin as a student in the 1990s and had praised the World War II Fascist Ustasa movement. Despite the controversies surrounding him, Hasanbegovic remained in office. Read more: Culture Minister Who Left His Mark on Croatia
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Tomislav Karamarko and Ana Saric Karamarko. Photo: Facebook[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
The weekly newspaper Nacional in May meanwhile broke the news that Ana Saric Karamarko, wife of the HDZ president and Vice Prime Minister, Tomislav Karamarko, had received over 60,000 euros to counsel a lobbyist for the Hungarian energy firm MOL, with which Croatia is in dispute. MOL and Croatia are undergoing international arbitration over the Croatian energy company INA. Read more: Croatia's Vice PM Quizzed Over Wife's 'Links to MOL
The two ruling parties had been tussling and threatening early elections almost since the government was formed but the controversy over Karamarko’s wife brought matters to a head. In the end, MOST joined the opposition parties in supporting the no-confidence vote in Karamarko. Read more: Croatian Govt Threatened as Ruling Coalition Withers
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Oreskovic talking to the parliament before the non-confidence vote. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Damir SENCAR/DS[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
This brought Oreskovic, Petrov and Karamarko into further conflict. In the meantime, the parliament's Commission for Conflicts of Interest ruled that Karamarko had been in a conflict of interest over his wife’s relations to MOL lobbyist.
In mid-June, the HDZ filed a motion of no-confidence in Oreskovic after which the government fell. Read more: Croatian Govt Falls After MPs Oust Oreskovic
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]President Grabar Kitarovic calling for early elections. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Lana SLIVAR DOMINIC/MO[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
The President then called early elections for September. Read more: Croatia President Backs Early Elections
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Tomislav Karamarko resigning as HDZ president. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/DARIO GRZELJ/EV/MO[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Karamarko resigned as HDZ president a few days later. Read more: Karamarko Resigns as Croatian Democratic Union President
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Andrej Plenkovic. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Lana SLIVAR DOMINIC/MO[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
With Karamarko stepping down, the HDZ held internal elections in late July, which the party’s MEP, Andrej Plenkovic, won as the only candidate standing. Plenkovic promised a more moderate, centrist direction in contrast to Karamarko’s more right-wing approach. Read more: Andrej Plenkovic: Centrist in the Running for Croatia’s HDZ
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Zoran Milanovic. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Lana SLIVAR DOMINIC/DS[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
With general elections scheduled for September 11, the campaign got underway in August. After Plenkovic took part in a TV duel in August with Zoran Milanovic, president of the opposition centre-left Social Democratic Party, SDP, the latter came under the spotlight over leaked audios of a closed meeting he had held with war veterans in which he described Bosnia and Herzegovina as a failed state and the Serbian political leadership as “arrogant”. The leaked report caused tensions in the region. Read more: Croatia Ex-PM’s Leaked ‘Insults’ Anger Bosnia, Serbia
Although the majority of opinion polls suggested the SDP would win the election, the HDZ won 61 of the 151 seats in the parliament while the SDP-led coalition won 54.
The HDZ then formed a new government with MOST and MPs representing national minorities under Plenkovic as Prime Minister. Read more: Croatia Parliament Votes in Plenkovic's New Govt
After two election defeats in only ten months, Milanovic on September 12 said he would not run in party elections that were scheduled to take place within five months. Read more: Milanovic to Quit as Leader of Croatian Leftists
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Davor Bernardic. Photo: Facebook/Davor Bernardic[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
With seven candidates standing in the SDP leadership election organised in late November, 36-year-old Davor Bernardic won the second round. Read more: Davor Bernardic: Social Democrat Leader Unlikely to Turn Left
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Croatian foreign minister Miro Kovac (left, in the middle) and his Serbian counterpart Ivica Dacic (right). Photo: Beta[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Besides the damage caused by Milanovic’s leaked statements, Croatia’s relations with its neighbours were generally poor. Throughout the year, Croatia blocked Serbia from opening new chapters in its EU membership negotiations, which caused reactions on both sides. Read more: Croatia-Serbia Tensions Escalate Into Diplomatic War
President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic’s various statements about Croatia’s neighbours also added oil to the flames, delighting some and infuriating others both at home and in the region. Read more: Croatian President's Year Sees High and Lows
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Defence Minister Damir Krsticevic. Photo: MORH/I. Brand[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
The arrest of a number of Bosnian Croats – suspected of committing war crimes in 1990s war – in the northern Bosnian town of Orasje in late October, caused much excitement in Croatia while a war-crimes investigation into Defence Minister and Vice-Prime Minister Damir Krsticevic also caused anger. Read more: Zagreb’s Meddling in Bosnian Croats’ Arrest Could Backfire
With its northern neighbour, Slovenia, Croatia continued to argue over the maritime border in the northern Adriatic. Slovenia created a fresh dispute when it erected a fence on the border in order to block unwanted refugees in October. Read more: Slovenia's Border Fence Alarms Migrant Experts in Croatia
The fence was viewed in Croatia as unnecessary as in March the so-called “Balkan refugee route”, which included Croatia, was closed. Thereafter the number of migrants crossing the border fell sharply. Read more: Balkan States Close Borders in Domino Effect
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Andrej Plenkovic (left) during his visit to Kiev. Photo: Facebook/Croatian government[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Croatia’s relations with Russia also deteriorated. Shortly after the new government assumed office, Plenkovic visited Ukraine. There he offered Croatia’s own experience in peacefully re-integrating rebel-held territory in 1995 as a possible model for Ukraine, parts of which in the east are under the control of pro-Russian rebels. Russia slated both the initiative and Croatia’s treatment of its Serbian minority. Read more: Russia Snubs Croatia's Peace Initiative on Ukraine
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Port of Dubrovnik in southern Croatia. Photo: Beta[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
On a more optimistic note, the country notched up a likely all-time record for tourism. A major contributor to the Croatian economy, the tourist season flourished partly as a result of terrorist outrages in Turkey, which resulted in holidaymakers diverting to safer Croatia. Read more: Montenegrin, Croatian Tourism Surges as Visitors Shun Turkey

- See more at: Croatia 2016: Political Turbulence and Foreign Feuds :: Balkan Insight

eins der peinlichsten Jahre für Kroatien

- - - Aktualisiert - - -

[h=1]Croatia 2016: Political Turbulence and Foreign Feuds[/h]Tihomir Oreskovic’s government fell after only a few months, the opposition Social Democratic leader resigned, feuds with Serbia worsened - but the tourist season was excellent.

Sven Milekic
BIRN
Zagreb
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Tihomir Oreskovic presenting government. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Daniel Kasap/DS[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
After different twists and turns that followed parliamentary elections in November 2015, the new centre-right government was voted in the parliament last January.
Although the government was led by the main party on the centre-right, the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, the kingmaker was a newcomer to national politics, the Bridge of the Independent Lists, MOST, with Bozo Petrov as its leader. Read More: Croatia's New Cabinet Draws Mixed Response
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Tihomir Oreskovic. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Damir SENCAR/MO[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
The government represented a political experiment as neither HDZ nor MOST took the position of prime minister. Instead, the HDZ proposed Tihomir Oreskovic, a non-party candidate with a background in the pharmaceutical industry with no political experience. He became the new Prime Minister.
His government soon turned out to be unstable however. Some experts later claimed that with no party of his own to rely on, he had been “doomed from the start”. Read more: Croatia's Ex-PM Was Doomed From Start, Experts Say
The trouble started in March when Oreskovic tried to assert his independence from the HDZ, which led to the tension between the HDZ on one side and MOST and Oreskovic on the other. Read more: Rifts Pose Threat to Croatia's Unwieldy Coalition
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Oreskovic's government in session. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Denis CERIC/MO[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
After blunders in the process of appointing new ministers and with no clear vision about how to boost the economy and reduce the budget deficit, on May 11, the credit ranking agency Moody’s lowered Croatia’s credit ranking for borrowing in foreign currencies from Ba1 to Ba2, with a negative outlook.
Moody’s argued that Croatia’s public debt, then about 86 per cent of its annual GDP, was far above other countries with a Ba1 credit ranking, whose public debts are worth an average of 45 per cent of GDP. Read more: Creditors Lose Faith in Croatia’s ‘Expert’ Govt
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic and Tihomir Oreskovic discussing on Dragan Lozancic's faith. Photo: Office of the President[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Oreskovic had also entered into a dispute with President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic – despite both being close to HDZ – regarding the removal of the head of Security and Intelligence Agency, SOA, Dragan Lozancic. Read more: Croatian Security Chief’s Fate Hangs in Balance
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]War veterans' minister Mijo Crnoja's registered address. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Damir SENCAR/MO[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Some ministers in the government attracted unnecessary attention. The Minister for War Veterans, Mijo Crnoja, drew ridicule for having proposed the creation of a register of “national traitors”. Read more: Croatian ‘Traitors’ Defy New War Veterans Minister

[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Crnoja resigning. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Daniel KASAP/DS[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
After hostile coverage in the media he stepped down after less than six days in office. Read more: Protests Force out Croatian Veterans' Minister
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Zlatko Hasanbegovic. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Damir SENCAR/DS[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Culture Minister Zlatko Hasanbegovic was even more controversial. The weekly newspaper Novosti discovered that he had written articles for an extreme right-wing bulletin as a student in the 1990s and had praised the World War II Fascist Ustasa movement. Despite the controversies surrounding him, Hasanbegovic remained in office. Read more: Culture Minister Who Left His Mark on Croatia
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Tomislav Karamarko and Ana Saric Karamarko. Photo: Facebook[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
The weekly newspaper Nacional in May meanwhile broke the news that Ana Saric Karamarko, wife of the HDZ president and Vice Prime Minister, Tomislav Karamarko, had received over 60,000 euros to counsel a lobbyist for the Hungarian energy firm MOL, with which Croatia is in dispute. MOL and Croatia are undergoing international arbitration over the Croatian energy company INA. Read more: Croatia's Vice PM Quizzed Over Wife's 'Links to MOL
The two ruling parties had been tussling and threatening early elections almost since the government was formed but the controversy over Karamarko’s wife brought matters to a head. In the end, MOST joined the opposition parties in supporting the no-confidence vote in Karamarko. Read more: Croatian Govt Threatened as Ruling Coalition Withers
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Oreskovic talking to the parliament before the non-confidence vote. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Damir SENCAR/DS[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
This brought Oreskovic, Petrov and Karamarko into further conflict. In the meantime, the parliament's Commission for Conflicts of Interest ruled that Karamarko had been in a conflict of interest over his wife’s relations to MOL lobbyist.
In mid-June, the HDZ filed a motion of no-confidence in Oreskovic after which the government fell. Read more: Croatian Govt Falls After MPs Oust Oreskovic
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]President Grabar Kitarovic calling for early elections. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Lana SLIVAR DOMINIC/MO[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
The President then called early elections for September. Read more: Croatia President Backs Early Elections
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Tomislav Karamarko resigning as HDZ president. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/DARIO GRZELJ/EV/MO[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Karamarko resigned as HDZ president a few days later. Read more: Karamarko Resigns as Croatian Democratic Union President
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Andrej Plenkovic. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Lana SLIVAR DOMINIC/MO[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
With Karamarko stepping down, the HDZ held internal elections in late July, which the party’s MEP, Andrej Plenkovic, won as the only candidate standing. Plenkovic promised a more moderate, centrist direction in contrast to Karamarko’s more right-wing approach. Read more: Andrej Plenkovic: Centrist in the Running for Croatia’s HDZ
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Zoran Milanovic. Photo: BETAPHOTO/HINA/Lana SLIVAR DOMINIC/DS[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
With general elections scheduled for September 11, the campaign got underway in August. After Plenkovic took part in a TV duel in August with Zoran Milanovic, president of the opposition centre-left Social Democratic Party, SDP, the latter came under the spotlight over leaked audios of a closed meeting he had held with war veterans in which he described Bosnia and Herzegovina as a failed state and the Serbian political leadership as “arrogant”. The leaked report caused tensions in the region. Read more: Croatia Ex-PM’s Leaked ‘Insults’ Anger Bosnia, Serbia
Although the majority of opinion polls suggested the SDP would win the election, the HDZ won 61 of the 151 seats in the parliament while the SDP-led coalition won 54.
The HDZ then formed a new government with MOST and MPs representing national minorities under Plenkovic as Prime Minister. Read more: Croatia Parliament Votes in Plenkovic's New Govt
After two election defeats in only ten months, Milanovic on September 12 said he would not run in party elections that were scheduled to take place within five months. Read more: Milanovic to Quit as Leader of Croatian Leftists
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Davor Bernardic. Photo: Facebook/Davor Bernardic[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
With seven candidates standing in the SDP leadership election organised in late November, 36-year-old Davor Bernardic won the second round. Read more: Davor Bernardic: Social Democrat Leader Unlikely to Turn Left
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Croatian foreign minister Miro Kovac (left, in the middle) and his Serbian counterpart Ivica Dacic (right). Photo: Beta[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Besides the damage caused by Milanovic’s leaked statements, Croatia’s relations with its neighbours were generally poor. Throughout the year, Croatia blocked Serbia from opening new chapters in its EU membership negotiations, which caused reactions on both sides. Read more: Croatia-Serbia Tensions Escalate Into Diplomatic War
President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic’s various statements about Croatia’s neighbours also added oil to the flames, delighting some and infuriating others both at home and in the region. Read more: Croatian President's Year Sees High and Lows
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Defence Minister Damir Krsticevic. Photo: MORH/I. Brand[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
The arrest of a number of Bosnian Croats – suspected of committing war crimes in 1990s war – in the northern Bosnian town of Orasje in late October, caused much excitement in Croatia while a war-crimes investigation into Defence Minister and Vice-Prime Minister Damir Krsticevic also caused anger. Read more: Zagreb’s Meddling in Bosnian Croats’ Arrest Could Backfire
With its northern neighbour, Slovenia, Croatia continued to argue over the maritime border in the northern Adriatic. Slovenia created a fresh dispute when it erected a fence on the border in order to block unwanted refugees in October. Read more: Slovenia's Border Fence Alarms Migrant Experts in Croatia
The fence was viewed in Croatia as unnecessary as in March the so-called “Balkan refugee route”, which included Croatia, was closed. Thereafter the number of migrants crossing the border fell sharply. Read more: Balkan States Close Borders in Domino Effect
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Andrej Plenkovic (left) during his visit to Kiev. Photo: Facebook/Croatian government[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Croatia’s relations with Russia also deteriorated. Shortly after the new government assumed office, Plenkovic visited Ukraine. There he offered Croatia’s own experience in peacefully re-integrating rebel-held territory in 1995 as a possible model for Ukraine, parts of which in the east are under the control of pro-Russian rebels. Russia slated both the initiative and Croatia’s treatment of its Serbian minority. Read more: Russia Snubs Croatia's Peace Initiative on Ukraine
[TABLE="width: 640, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Port of Dubrovnik in southern Croatia. Photo: Beta[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
On a more optimistic note, the country notched up a likely all-time record for tourism. A major contributor to the Croatian economy, the tourist season flourished partly as a result of terrorist outrages in Turkey, which resulted in holidaymakers diverting to safer Croatia. Read more: Montenegrin, Croatian Tourism Surges as Visitors Shun Turkey

- See more at: http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/croatia-2016-year-of-political-turbulence-12-15-2016#sthash.bkjdV4OC.dpuf

eins der peinlichsten Jahre für Kroatien

Du hast das doppelt gepostet.

 

[Jovan]

Du hast das doppelt gepostet.

- - - Aktualisiert - - -



Du hast das doppelt gepostet.

- - - Aktualisiert - - -



Du hast das doppelt gepostet.

- - - Aktualisiert - - -



Du hast das doppelt gepostet.

sag mal kannst du Vollidiot den scheiss mal lassen?

 

[Domoljub]

Das hat nix mit Kroatien zu tuhen.

 

[Jure Gagaric]

Anders als im Forum scheint es Kroaten zu geben, die ihrer recht faschistischen Vergangenheit nicht hinterhertrauern ... wobei dies auch eine Zeitungsente sein könnte

MLADI HRVATI UZELI STVAR U SVOJE RUKE Evo za?to smo PRELEPILI plo?u sa natpisom "Za dom spremni"

Inicijativa mladih za ljudska prava prelijepila plo?u na kojoj je istaknut slogan mr?nje u Jasenovcu | Yihr HR
MLADI LJUDI U AKCIJI: Preko jasenova?ke plo?e sa usta?kim pozdravom zalijepili poruku HOS-ovcima. Pro?itajte je :: Hiperlink :: Lupiga

Dahinter steckt YiHR, eine Organisation, die in fast allen Ex YU Republiken aktiv ist. Auf FB werden sie gerade groß gefeiert. DIe Antifa Gruppen hätten das Ding zerstört oder Farbbeutel geworfen, wie schon im letzten Sommer bei einem Denkmal oder, wie beim HOS Denkmal in Split, was seit Jahren bewacht wird von den Spinnern.

Da durfte das ZDS nicht drauf, dann kam der "Farbanschlag", dann wurde in einer Nacht und Nebelaktion das ZDS angebracht und dann kam wieder die Retourkutsche

 

[daro]

Anders als im Forum scheint es Kroaten zu geben, die ihrer recht faschistischen Vergangenheit nicht hinterhertrauern ... wobei dies auch eine Zeitungsente sein könnte

"

Dies hat null mit der Vergangenheit aus dem zweiten Weltkrieg zu tun, die Toten wurden von Serben in Kroatien umgebracht

 

[Strahimir I]

OBRA?UN S KOMUNIZMOM: Ukrajina u godinu dana oklonila 1320 Lenjinova kipa i preimenovala 51.500 ulica i trgova

Bravo, da kann Kroatien mal was machen und sich vom Schrott trennen.

 

[BlackJack]

OBRA?UN S KOMUNIZMOM: Ukrajina u godinu dana oklonila 1320 Lenjinova kipa i preimenovala 51.500 ulica i trgova

Bravo, da kann Kroatien mal was machen und sich vom Schrott trennen.

Stimmt, da gibt es einiges an wirren NDH-Kreaturen

 

[Jure Gagaric]

http://www.index.hr/vijesti/clanak/mamicev-odgovor-uskoku-ponosan-sam-na-corlukin-transfer-ali-i-na-sve-sto-sam-radio-u-dinamu/940829.aspx

Foto: Hina, Facebook
NAKON što je danas Uskok objavio da je proširio istragu protiv Zdravka Mamića, na svom Facebook profilu gazda Dinama reagirao je na nove optužbe.

"Danas sam iz medija saznao da USKOK priprema Novogodišnju čestitku u obliku proširenja istrage protiv partnera i mene.

Obzirom da za vrijeme trajanja istrage ne mogu javno govoriti o predmetima i poštujući činjenicu da nikakvu službenu obavijest još nisam primio- mogu samo odgovoriti da osjećam isključivo ponos prema poslu koji je obavljen prilikom transfera Ćorluke u Manchester City, te bez lažne skromnosti mogu reći da sam jedino ja mogao realizirati takav posao u tadašnjim tržišnim uvjetima.

Također, ponosan sam i na sav rad koji sam obavio u Dinamu, o čemu ću nažalost moći pričati samo na sudu.", poručio je Mamić.

Podsjetimo, Uskok je objavio da je donio rješenje o provođenju i proširenju istrage protiv petorice hrvatskih državljana (1959., 1959., 1982., 1970., 1968.) zbog osnovane sumnje na počinjenje kaznenih djela zlouporabe povjerenja u gospodarskom poslovanju.

Uskok sumnja da je Mamić kao izvršni dopredsjednik GNK Dinamo, sklopio lažni ugovor s tvrtkom svog sina Marija Mamića kojim je njegova offshore tvrtka postala 'stvarni' vlasnik Dinamovog igrača. Temeljem tog ugovora, Dinamo je isplatio pola milijuna eura toj tvrtki, a novac je završio u rukama tate i sina Mamić. Ugovor je sklopljen 12. srpnja 2007. godine.

Drugi dio Uskokove istrage se odnosi i na transfer Vedrana Ćorluke u Machester City. Mamić je preko još druge offshore tvrtke, iza koje je također stajao njegov sin, za uslugu "zastupanja interesa igrača u Engleskoj te pronalazak kluba u dogovorenom roku" na račun te tvrtke uplatio 1,2 milijuna eura. Taj novac su također podijelili tata i sin Mamić.

Sporno je pak to da je 'posrednik', odnosno sin Mamić, trebao pronaći klub igraču koji je već počeo igrati u novom klubu. Naime, ugovor je potpisan nakon Ćorlukinog transfera u Manchester City, a odnosio se upravo na njegov odlazak iz Dinama, odnosno na vrijeme prije potpisivanja.

 

[Grdelin]

Jebo te Mamic

 

[Jure Gagaric]

für ujovarac

ODR?ANA MISA ZA PAVELI?A: Nema prosvjeda, jer vi?e - nema smisla :: Novice :: Lupiga