The president who wants to be prime minister: How Zoran Milanović stirred up Croatia

Croatian President Zoran Milanović's plan succeeded. Since he recently unexpectedly decided that the parliamentary elections will be held on Wednesday, April 17, and not on Sunday as usual, and immediately afterwards announced his candidacy for the position of prime minister on the list of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), without first stepping down from the post of president, in Croatia has almost no other political topics. Everyone talks only about Milanović, writes Deutsche Welle (DW).

"Rivers of justice are coming"

The reason, however, is not only the announcement of the candidacy - it is primarily his unbridled rhetoric that inflames passions. In front of the gathered journalists, he spoke - targeting the government of Andrej Plenković and his Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) - about "thieves and oppressors", "empty figures without faith and worldview", only "desiring naked power and other people's money". The country is ruled by "gangsters" who have the "mentality of cattle thieves", they are all "leeches and parasites on the healthy tissue of the Croatian people", according to the president.

And he didn't shy away from religiously colored language either: the country is dirty like "Augi's stables", but "rivers of justice are coming", they will clean all that dirt, as soon as he is elected prime minister, because this is a "holy war".

Even for a president who has previously distinguished himself with harsh statements and rhetorical escapades, this represented a new dimension of escalation.

Calculated marketing strategy

"This fierce rhetoric is calculated. It's a calculated marketing strategy, a carefully designed performance," says political analyst and writer Jurica Pavičić in an interview with D.W. "Milanović is trying to ride the wave of an extreme revolt of a significant part of the middle class in Croatia, which is terribly angry at these accumulated corruption scandals, which is revolted by the fact that the Croatian country is intertwined with nepotism and corruption, completely suffocated by the dominance of the ruling party, which affects everyone , from the opera to the firefighters," says Pavičić.

If this was an election like any other, then the HDZ would have won, assembled a coalition and continued to rule. That is why the only possibility for change is for "the opposition to mobilize people, create a 'now or never' situation, to present itself as if these elections are the only way to stop the long and exhausting hegemony of the HDZ", says Pavičić and adds: "Therefore it is reasonable to mobilize with harsh rhetoric."

Ignoring the Constitutional Court

But not only HDZ - Milanović did not spare the Constitutional Court either. When the judges announced that he could not officially be a candidate unless he first stepped down as president, he called them "illiterate peasants", "boring barn flies" and "a gang of gangsters".

SDP, on the other hand, explained that Milanović may not be an official candidate, but if the party wins, he will be elected prime minister. In that case, he would still resign as president.

Although all this certainly represents disrespect for the Constitutional Court, explains Pavičić, there is no one in Croatia who respects that institution anyway. "That court is a mockery." It is not a court at all, and there are no judges there. It is a group of deplorable politicians, ministers, deputies who were gathered there by the left and the right according to some quota. They function like the Guardian Council of the Revolution in Iran. If there is an institution that is completely compromised in Croatia, it is the Constitutional Court. It is the subject of mass ridicule in the country," says the analyst.

Urban racism

The most striking slogan of Milanović's campaign, however, is not the swearing of Plenković and the constitutional judges, but his announcement of the "rivers of justice" coming in the spring. It is a quote from a song by the new wave group Film and Jure Stublić. Here Milanović uses one hidden in the Croatian culture and tells the audience: that's us, the urbanites. Pavičić believes that this shows a certain amount of urban racism: we guys from the asphalt, we who understand the city.

"He often treats the village, the peasants, the peasants in a negative context. Citing the Film group, he shows that it is our music, the generation that was socialized on the New Wave. In one place, he also talks about HDZ members who go to Osijek to get their diplomas by Krstić company buses. It is an allusion to the famous Yugoslav film by Slobodan Šijan "Who sings there". He likes to show that he is educated. He likes to make himself important with his high school and pop culture education. Milanović winks at his audience and alludes to some kind of common cultural code we have it, and those who grabbed the state don't have it", explains Pavičić.

The right alternative

In the past four years of his five-year mandate, Milanović profiled himself as the real opposition to Plenković and his HDZ - primarily because it turned out that the parliamentary opposition parties were incompetent, harmless and at odds with each other.

Speaking of domestic politics, the president did not miss an opportunity to attack the government for corruption and unbridled clientelism.

But he was happy to use the foreign policy stage as well: unlike Plenković, who is considered an exemplary European student, Milanović emphasizes Croatia's national interests in EU politics, which primarily concern the maximum use of various EU funds. When it comes to Russia's war against Ukraine, he shows a great understanding of Moscow's interests and advocates Croatia's restraint. As for neighboring Bosnia and Herzegovina, he stands out as a protector of the exclusive rights of the Croats there and cares little for the stability and functionality of that country. "In relation to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Milanović is much less constructive than Plenković," notes Pavičić.

Milanović achieves great success with this strategy. According to public opinion polls, that former leader of the Social Democrats has been the most popular politician in Croatia for years, and after the announcement of his candidacy, the party improved by another seven percent, according to polls. Plenković's re-election, which until recently was almost certain, was suddenly called into question. "Now Croatia has an alternative," says Pavičić.

Croatian Fico?

Milanović recognized the mood in the country. "His rhetoric is that he is someone who comes with cavalry, who comes with that." by the river of justice, which will sweep away that deeply compromised and corrupt state," says Pavičić.

But, in the current campaign, Milanović does not have a program at all - he is a program. "Milanović mutated into a right-left populist." "He has some traces of his former left-wing position, for example in relation to anti-fascism and the Second World War, but some positions are right-wing populist, for example in relation to Ukraine and Russia, to the legacy of the 1990s, including war crimes," Pavičić explains.

And that's the problem. "It is very likely that voters who usually vote for the left, as well as a part of the right-wing voters, will vote for him." But we do not know where his government would lead. We can't be sure that he won't become the Croatian version of Robert Fitz," fears Pavičić.

And Slovak Prime Minister Fico, together with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, is currently the most worrying thing for Brussels: both of them are considered populists, who care little for media freedom and the rule of law, and they are also considered to be prominent supporters of Putin among the heads of state and government of the European Union.