Ex-communist Europe

Eastern approaches

Protests in Croatia

Et tu, Zagreb?

Mar 6th 2011, 15:39 by T.J.

THE English-language Croatian Times reports that there may be ancient pyramids in the historic port town of Dubrovnik. Could this be a case of Balkan pyramid envy? In 2006 we reported on a tourist boom in the Bosnian town of Visoko following the discovery of pyramids there.

Another Croatian city, Zagreb, appears to be taking a different sort of lead from Egypt. The capital has been rocked by a series of protests that are partly being organised, Egypt-style, via Facebook. One demonstration, a week ago, turned violent. As many as 10,000 took to the streets on Friday night. Here is Balkan Insight’s take:

As in previous protests this week, the demonstrators first tried to reach St Mark's Square, the seat of the government and parliament, but were turned back by the police because protests are prohibited in that square.

The demonstrators then headed for the headquarters of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, party, chanting "HDZ thieves," "We want elections" and "We want change". They stayed there for about 15 minutes and then moved to Vukovarska Street.

The protesters also accused the Croatian opposition of failing to improve the situation in Croatia, saying that they were only concerned with their own self-promotion.

Croatia has faced a number of anti-government protests in recent weeks, including one on Saturday that saw violent clashes between police and demonstrators. More than 30 people were injured and dozens arrested in the rally, at which protesters called on the government to step down.

Friday's rally was also supported by Croatia's teachers' union, as well as several smaller opposition parties, including the nationalist HDS SB party of Branimir Glavas, a convicted war criminal.

The protest passed without incident, with only a small number of police providing security. The traffic along the march route was disrupted.

Thus far the opposition Social Democrats have kept their distance from the protests, which is hardly surprising given that they are coming under attack too. Another reason for their discomfort may be that some of the protestors have been seen burning EU flags.

Croatia hopes to join the EU soon, but last week there were contradictory reports on the final stages of its accession process. “Lack of reforms hits Croatia’s EU hopes” reported the Financial Times. By contrast the Southeast European Times wrote that Jadranka Kosor, Croatia's prime minister, thought EU accession talks could be finalised by June.

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icetea777 wrote:
Mar 6th 2011 9:18 GMT

croatia has gained its idependance and freedom in 1995. elected officials promissed to enforce democracy, 15 years later, the same party commited more than a milion of criminal acts, which resulted in failure of croatian economy, millions left with out a way to make ends meet. the same party then stole tax money and sold croatian property and government facilities to foreign entities who have no interest in croatian future other than destroying the most beautiful nature of croatia and build factories (croatians are not for sale, neither is their land), world wildlife has arleady stoped this from happening once, now 85% of croatian people are trying to stop it, by peacefully protesting on the street. but did you hear their cry for help? if you didnt its because croatian media is not covering it the way it really is - they keep manupilating with the number of protestors, they say its only few thousand of them when in fact it is 85% of the nation!! so shouldnt the criminals be in jail regardless of the false media coverage? please help croatia to free it self of corruption!

croatians do not want to sell their land to EU because croatians are highly educated, and why should they be slaves in their own land to foreign bosses? young, healthy, hard-working and educated people should have an option to decide the paths of their own future, not being manipulated by some criminal organization who was elected on lies! they promised democracy but delivered dictatorship!

Croatia is not for sale, and croatian people are not bred to be slaves on Earth! Help Crotians free them selves of corruption! thank you!

RaspadSattiva wrote:
Mar 6th 2011 11:16 GMT

This is bullcr@p! These protest will wane in no time, since they are led by a person who cannot write a more coherent statement other than that Croatian government should use Linux-based platforms instead of Microsoft ones. Give me a break! I saw just a bunch of bored and drunk kids, who looked after nothing else but their five minutes of glory.
@Icetea777: who sold the Croatian land, and who sold government facilities to foreigners, and when??? Croatia freed itself of corruption once the former PM was jailed in Austria, and all that happened when his party was still in power! I consider that to be quite a feat! Just be patient, the elections will come by, and the HDZ will be trashed!

icetea777 wrote:
Mar 7th 2011 12:06 GMT

@raspad.. im sorry i have to tell you this, but if you only seen some drunk teens protesting then you clearly need an eye exam, dont worry there is no shame in that, there is a lot of people who wear glasses these days!

RaspadSattiva wrote:
Mar 7th 2011 7:54 GMT

I wear glasses, and I am not ashamed of that! Now, please broaden my horizons and tell me what is the goal of these demonstrations? What is their purpose?

xrocker wrote:
Mar 7th 2011 10:22 GMT

People are wenting their frustraitions. They demand early election instead of the one scheduled at around the end of this year, as a 6 month earlier election would make a difference. When asked in a poll whom they want to govern, over 40% responded 'don't know'!?
To claim in a comment that 85% of population is taking part in demonstrations is false and that local media is manipulating the number of protesters is manipulation in itself. If anything, all local media is relishing the opportunity to report from towns across the country with a cumulative total of well less than twenty thousand on a given day this past weekend (in a country of 4.5 mil). Will the numbers increase or the people will get tired of listening to opportunists of various kinds and the populist nonsense as exposed in comment of icetea, remains to be seen. Hope for the former. The least the country needs now is to switch its focus on an early elections with no valid candidates to choose from. That is the problem.

icetea777 wrote:
Mar 7th 2011 2:13 GMT

there is more than 4.5 million reasons why this mafia needs to get out, but im gonna give u basic ones for your better understanding: people are protesting because they can no longer afford food to eat (even though most of them have university degrees)they eat from garbage cans , most of them is unemployed and dont have any income, the other half has worked for 6 months with out a pay check!!!! would you go to work for 6 months with no pay??? well, thats slavery , aint it? okay so there you get the point! then , they can not afford heat or hot water in their homes! it gets so cold in croatia! all of their jobs are "frozen" because of the "trade competition" laws - even work that could be enforced is forbidden by the eu! they are selling out everything they can! even the shipyards! they are even selling croatian shipyards that used to employ 100's for only .18 us cents!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! now, croatian land belongs to the people of croatia - and majority rules!!! this criminal organization HDZ sold 70% of croatian property to foreigners and took money for them selves, and they are trying to get all of the croatians to move out of croatia to loose their identity and to loose the right on their land which they fought for since the 7th century, the last war was only 15 years ago and it was a massacre on croatian nation, and the whole world slept through it, croatia cried for help to Europe, europe ignored them, but now europe wants to be the one to buy off all of croatia and kick us to the curb, to turn us into slaves on our own land! and this elected pary is the one who made all the secret deals with EU without including the majoritys opinion! now these protests have been going on for 10 days and they are ignoring us, protests are continuing to stay peaceful! how far are they going to try to push the nation >? dont forget media coverage is simply a joke at this point! because the whole nation of croatia wants them out! NOW!

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About Eastern approaches

Eastern approaches deals with the economic, political, security and cultural aspects of the eastern half of the European continent. It incorporates the long-running "Europe.view" weekly column. The blog is named after the wartime memoirs of the British soldier Sir Fitzroy Maclean.

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