Croatian Presidential Elections
I have spent the better part of the past month in Croatia and Herzegovina, visiting my family. I haven't been there in a while, and I'll write more about my personal experiences when I get some free time in the upcoming days. One thing that I would like to remark upon right now, because it is still fairly fresh and relevant, are the presidential elections that just took place. Croatian politics is never boring, and these elections are no exception. In the second round Social Democrat Ivo Josipović beat his earstwhile party (adn Party) colleague Milan Bandić. The second round was particularly unappealing, since it pitted two former communists against each other, one of whom had become a byword for all sorts of corruption and graft. I actually left Croatia prior to the second round, and had I been there I probably wouldn't have voted. Bandić had tried to remake himself as a populist and a religiously-oriented candidate, but this was so ridiculous that only the completely desperate parts of the electorate believed any of it. Most of his supporters probably thought him to be the lesser of two evils (as have in my estimation most of Josipović supporters about him), but that sort of support will not get you too far. In the end, the outcome of the election is probably for the best. Josipović has a reputation for being clean and uncorrupted, which is the kind of image that Croatia desperately needs for its politicians right now. In Croatia presidential powers are rather limited, so it's not likely that the country as a whole will be pushed leftward, especially considering that the government is still in hands of center-right Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ).
The outcome of the first round of elections, where not a single right-leaning candidate managed to garner enough votes to get into the second round, is probably the consequence of the internal turmoil within HDZ that started last summer when the party leader and Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader unexpectedly quit all of his functions. In the ensuing months Croatia was plunged into the string of corruption scandals, most of which had been linked to some members of HDZ. This state of affairs created rifts in the party, with several high-ranking party members deciding to run on their own for the president of the country. The fractured right was no match for the couple of the well-positioned candidates from the left, and it resulted in the second round of the election which did not offer the electorate the real choice between competing political philosophies, superficial as they may be when it comes to Croatian politics.
Which brings me to my next point. I was rather disappointed at the level of political debate during these elections. Most of the issues are rather ad-hoc, with very little attempt to formulate a consistent and overarching political vision. Personality plays a big role in politics in general, but when it comes to electing the president of Croatia it seems like it plays the only role. There is also a very low threshold for entering the presidential race. A candidate needs to collect only 10,000 signatures of support, which even in a country of only 4.5 million inhabitants is not all that much. Consequently, we had a dozen or so motley candidates enter the race, which made all of the political debates rather cacophonous. I think that the threshold for running should be raised, and there are already some indications that this is in the works. I would also like to see some form of primary races within political parties. This will ensure that the legitimacy of the party's choices for the presidential candidate cannot be easily challenged. However, this last change is not likely to happen. The elites of all parties have too much power and they are not likely to cede it to the rank and file any time soon.
From a purely selfish point of view I am actually very disappointed with the outcome of the elections. The previous Croatian president, Stipe Mesić, had a knack for telling corny and downright inane jokes. A couple of years ago I made a parody of him telling a joke, and had it uploaded on YouTube. Since then the short video has been watched over 160,000 times, to universal loathing of the viewing public. Nonetheless, the video started making some money for me through Google's AdSense program, enough to buy me a cup of coffee each month. My brother and I made a short video, with a much more thought-out plotline, for the second round of presidential elections. (You can watch it here.) So far it has not fared too badly for a homemade YouTube video, but it has not come even close to the popularity of my Mesić video. Only time will tell if it ever becomes another hit. And that's why I was sort of hoping for Bandić victory. He would have provided and endless amount of material for online comedy. The catatonic Josipović is a much more bland character, and it will be very hard to make too many jokes at his expense.
Having a boring president might be a good thing for Croatia. It has lived through too many interesting years. It's high time for it to become another quiet little Central European country.