Croatia: Chance for a New Beginning
Ines Lovrić Jović/STA, Zagreb
A new political atmosphere has emerged in Croatia - this has become a buzzword in the Croatian media as well as in everyday debates among common people. The new Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader - who assumed the office after his party, the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), won the parliamentary elections on November 23, 2003 - has won quite a few sympathies with his initial political moves. It may well have been a symbolic gesture, but when Ivo Sanader visited the headquarters of the Serbian National Council on Orthodox Christmas, and became the first Croatian prime minister to do so, it had quite a powerful effect on the Croatian public. Observers believe that his seasonal wishes to the Serbian community, by way of the traditional Christmas greeting "Christ is Born", are likely to be remembered by posterity as a cornerstone in Croatian-Serbian relations. The new Croatian PM made another symbolic move as he met representatives of the Italian ethnic minority in Istria, addressing them in their mother tongue.
The atmosphere emerging after the new HDZ and its president marched onto the Croatian political scene has therefore quite surprised those who were somewhat anxious that a party should come into power which ruled Croatia in the first decade of its independence, and is still remembered as a populist and nationalistic movement often exhibiting intolerance of ethnic minorities in Croatia.
In one of their initial moves, representatives of the newly appointed government voiced the wish for good cooperation with neighbouring countries. They especially underscored the importance of good neighbourly relations with Slovenia and a wish to settle all disputed issues by consensus. In his first public appearances, Croatian Foreign Minister Miomir Žužul stated that that there are more things Slovenians and Croatians share than there are that separate them. He voiced hope that both sides would sit down at the negotiating table one more time in an attempt to find solutions to their problems before asking the assistance of a third party.
Under the new Constitutional Act on the Rights of Ethnic Minorities, ethnic Slovenians in Croatia will be represented in the newly elected Croatian Parliament for the first time ever. The Slovenian and the Bosniak ethnic minorities were "erased" from the Preamble of the Croatian Constitution as constitutional changes were adopted during the former HDZ rule in 1997. Right after the November elections, PM Sanader pledged to seek support for both minorities to be put back in the Constitution.
Demonstrating its sensitivity to the issue of ethnic minorities, which are part and parcel of the Croatian cultural and historical heritage, the HDZ centre-right cabinet would like to show its new face as a modern and democratic government even outside Croatia's borders - all the more so as it took office in a year when Croatia is looking forward to getting the status of an EU candidate country.
Nevertheless, everyone in Croatia, as well as abroad, is waiting for the first substantive moves, which will show in practice whether, and in what way, the cabinet of the new Croatian PM will implement its new rhetoric.
Everyone is waiting for the first substantive moves, which will show in practice whether the new Croatian cabinet will implement its new rhetoric.
