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Politics:

A Year Has Passed

This Monday marked a year since the last election in Croatia, when the HDZ beat the SDP against all odds to win another mandate after its Karamarko government imploded in a series of inexplicable self-goals. And an anniversary is always a good moment for stock taking, so let’s see where Croatia is today, compared to […]

Another Year, Another Penny

As this most adventurous 2017 ends, perhaps it is time to take a look and see where Croatia finds itself today. When the Plenković government came into office, most observers thought that a cabinet led by a polished European diplomat and comprising several well-known technocrats is just what the country needs. And the initial tone […]

Brexit

This is our first day on line, and what a day it is. We expected to deal mainly with Croatia’s position in international relations, its internal politics, some basic relations within the EU and ordinary every day politics of the EU and its latest member. However, the news of Brexit stunned us all. Perhaps naively, […]

Brexit in the Balkans

A day after the UK voters decided to leave the EU, it is not easy to see all the consequences of this decision. But in the general euphoria of statements, one should not forget that Britain did not say “no” to free trade, rule of law, or democracy, but only to one particular form of […]

Convention of Contention

These days, two Croatian politicians find themselves between the proverbial rocks and hard places, both related to a fairly simple issue of ratifying a Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence. The Convention, commonly known as the „Istanbul Convention“, is a relatively straightforward convention providing more elaborate protection […]

Death of Oliver Ivanović

Oliver Ivanović, one of the most prominent Kosovo Serb politicians, was killed in front of his office this morning around 08:15. According to the press reports, he was hit with four or five bullets, found by a neighbor still alive, but died in a hospital within an hour. A burned car was found in a […]

EU structural crisis after Brexit could endanger enlargement policy and global balance of power

 This text also appeared in Al Jazeera Balkans in Croatian language. “After this, nothing will ever be the same” is a phrase very much abused. But when speaking about Brexit it comes very much to mind as a description of the process that has just begun. And the process itself is so complex that it […]

Henry’s Ghosts

Or how the phoenix of dialogue keeps rising from the ashes…  

Honeymoon wasn’t much? Just you wait…

Now that the Government had some time to settle in, we believe it is time to do some stock taking. In measuring how far the Government got by now, we might be able to see how far it is likely to go over the next couple of months. For now, it seems like not too […]

How Is the Government Doing?

A year after the new government was sworn in, problems seem to mount at an alarming rate. Although the main macroeconomic indicators show progress, underlying problems seem unable to go away no matter how hard the Plenković team tries. The biggest of those being, of course, Agrokor. Six months ago, the government pushed through a […]

How Russia Bought Itself a NATO Country

No, it’s not what you think.

ICTY ends its mandate by confirming judgement against Bosnian Croats

Today, the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia, the ICTY, was supposed to pass its final words. Its last ruling was to be on appeal of the six Bosnian Croats accused of war crimes. But apart from individual responsibility, this ruling had much bigger implications because the original judgement[1] included a claim that the six […]

Meet the New Government, Same as the Old Government?

Not by a long shot. Croatia finally has a new government, less than a year after the last one was sworn in. This time, although the Government is again mostly HDZ with several old names from Most, it seems to be far more stable. And it also seems to be less controversial. So what happened? […]

The Fall of the House of Cards

Last week, the complex political situation in Croatia just got more interesting. In the government meeting last Thursday, PM Plenkovic dismissed three ministers belonging to his coalition partner Most. This was in response to their lack of support to his Finance Minister Maric, of whom Most has been openly critical lately. However, the move hit […]

Ukraine – when the shooting stops

It’s been some three weeks since the Russian invasion of Ukraine started. So where are we now and where is this likely to go? Russia seems stalled in general, but its military is continuing attacks on UA cities with increased shelling of civilian areas and facilities, leading to massive evacuation of civilians. Russian military is […]

Why partitioning Kosovo is a bad idea…

The author of this article is half-Palestinian, and although he never lived in the Middle East, he nevertheless feels entitled to an opinion about various peace agreements. Ditto on the most famous phrase of the conflict, the “land for peace”. In its original meaning, it stands for Israel giving up the lands occupied in the […]

Win, Lose, or Draw…

Last week PM Plenković had to gather enough votes to defend his embattled minister of finance, Marić, and replace Speaker Petrov with Mr Jandroković. At the beginning of the week, analysts were divided in assessing his chances, with slightly more of them betting on his failure. In the end, he managed to spring a fast […]

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