HRVATSKA DESNICA MIJENJA RUHO

KEY MESSAGES Six turning points in Knin: 'Plenković managed to finally break the Storm and HDZ out of the hands of the Radicals' Six turning points are analyzed by three professors: Tihomir Cipek, Tvrtko Jakovina and Dragan Bagić By: Željka GodečPosted: August 07, 2020 7:21 am Gordan Jandrokovic, Ante Gotovina, Zoran Milanovic, Andrej Plenkovic Gordan Jandrokovic, Ante Gotovina, Zoran Milanovic, Andrej Plenkovic Nikša Stipaničev / Cropix Facebook Twitter Messenger E-mail RELATED NEWS Prime Minister Andrej Plenković NEW STEP Plenković goes to Varivode, Medved: The crown of everything will be a joint trip to Vukovar NEW RESEARCH HDZ was convincingly the first, SDP sank, and the Homeland Movement is no longer the third political force It took 25 years since the Storm and the end of the war for representatives of the Serb community in Croatia to come to Knin for the anniversary. And just as much for the government representatives, in addition to routine messages of peace, to say what the victims have been waiting for for years. They were uttered by Prime Minister Andrej Plenković : “We should show due respect for every innocent victim, thousands of innocent Croatian victims from Vukovar to Dubrovnik through Voćin, Saborsko and Škabrnja. Reverence for the innocent Serb victims from Paulin Dvor to Varivod, which does not jeopardize the legitimacy or justice of the Homeland War or diminish the victory achieved in the Storm. " He said this in such a way that Eugen Jakovčić , long-time critics from Documenta - the Center for Dealing with the Past, did not spare him, only this time it was a matter of praise: “The Prime Minister's historic performance in Knin is a long-awaited peace speech because it focuses on such eager sympathy victims ". The six turning points that emerged from the messages of Prime Minister Plenković and President Zoran Milanović , and what this means for the political and life of ordinary Croatian citizens, are analyzed by three professors: Tihomir Cipek from the Faculty of Political Science in Zagreb, and Tvrtko Jakovina and Dragan Bagić from the Faculty of Philosophy. faculty in Zagreb. 1) Plenković put Oluja in the right place and sobered up the radical right "Plenković clearly determined the place of Serb victims in the political interpretations of the Storm and the Homeland War. This is not the first such move by Croatian official policy, but it is crucial for two things. The first is the place itself, which happened in Knin as part of the Storm commemoration. , this was done by the president of the HDZ as another step away from the radical right by which the HDZ has been blackmailed since the 1990s. In the parliamentary election campaign, Plenković was the first HDZ president not to deceive his voters by flirting with symbols and rhetoric of the right. The HDZ has been doing this for years: in the campaign, it would succumb to radical nationalism, and when it won power, it would do what was needed, even form a coalition with the SDSS. Plenković did not flatter that right in the campaign and now has full legitimacy to pursue a moderate and centrist policy. No one can accuse him of voter fraud. Yes, those steps were made by Jadranka Kosor and Ivo Sanader, but never to the end; Sanader would shout 'Christ is born' and then threaten the red devils. Plenković's speech in Knin is the end of that cycle - emancipation from the radical right and that is why they do not like it ", comments Dragan Bagić, a sociologist at the Faculty of Philosophy. image Andrej Plenković Stipe Majic / AFP Tihomir Cipek, a political scientist at the Faculty of Political Sciences, believes that Plenković's speech is the speech of the future, that he put the past in the function of the future and said that society should move forward: "With emphasis that the Homeland War and its victory were legitimate according to the Serb victims, Plenković showed that he sees the state as a community of equal citizens and that we cannot have an inclusive society if we do not pay tribute to all the victims of the war. " Tvrtko Jakovina, a historian from the Faculty of Philosophy, has doubts about the people around Plenković whose rhetoric until yesterday was completely different, such as Željko Reiner and Tomo Medved . "It remains to be seen whether this is a group of politicians who will do whatever it takes to stay in power if the boss says so, or whether Croatia has really reached a point where such a strong gesture will cause a real turnaround. We had a lot of gestures, from Sanader's 'Christ is born', Slobodan Uzelac in the Government, attempts to introduce narratives in textbooks that will be the same for Croats and Serbs, apologies from Tadic, Josipovic , financial compensation to the Zec family ... But , it all broke. That's why we have to be careful. " 2) Serbs in Croatia are also ready to redefine Storm Bagić believes that Boris Milošević , President of the Serbian National Council and Deputy Prime Minister, with his arrival at the Storm celebration made an important step towards changing the official policy of Croatian Serbs towards the Storm, but also the Homeland War: "The storm is first and foremost a defeat of the Greater Serbia policy, with which the representatives of the Croatian Serbs have absolutely nothing to do. With their arrival in Knin, they symbolically showed that. to admit to themselves and their voters that the Storm was legitimate, their victims were of course not legitimate, but the arrival of Milosevic in Knin is a kind of recognition that Croatia had the right to regain its sovereignty by force of arms. This recognition was not made explicitly, but I hope that this act opened the door for it ", Jakovina, on the other hand, believes that the Croatian Serb leadership has made" a cathartic step forward, but that it still does not give a picture of the majority of Serbs in Croatia. " We cannot take the move for granted that it represents the majority of the HDZ. "" The Serb community in Croatia has realized that the policies pursued for 25 years are nowhere to be seen, that Serb villages are still without electricity, tension and suspicion about their connection with Belgrade are constantly hovering. We can hope that this will be an impulse for things to start changing between Zagreb and Belgrade, because the relationship between Serbs in Croatia and official Zagreb may change, "Jakovina estimates. 3) Milanovic sobered up the radical left What Plenković did to the radical right, Milanović did to the radical part of the left political spectrum by honoring HVO units. "By decorating units, not individuals," explains Begić, he took a step towards an objective and consensual view of the HVO's role not only around the Storm, and added: convicted war criminal in The Hague. It is an important step in changing the attitudes of the left on a range of issues related to the HVO, Herceg Bosna, the war in BiH and Croatia's policy towards BiH. In this field, the left still lives through unsustainable myths. This may be a small step in breaking them up, as part of the left views the role of the HVO in an emotional and reckless way. Maybe a little awkward, but that does not diminish the essence of that act ", Bagić is convinced. Cipek, on the other hand, believes that Milanović has expressed this identity before, and that he has demonstrated it in Mostar, that he has expressed the importance of the HVO before. 4) Radical right pushed to the margins The protocol used the crown to control the event itself and prevented access to the radical right, which lives off symbols and always uses Storm to point out its narrative - they are pushed aside, both physically and symbolically. "The protocol marginalization of radicals who use the symbols of the Homeland War exclusively for their own political purposes has dealt an important blow to the irrational and manipulative part of the Croatian right. This is the first time in recent history that radicals have not been allowed to do so. . image Boris Milošević and Andrej Plenković in Knin Nikša Stipaničev / Cropix It is crucial that the symbols of the Homeland War be taken away from the hands of the radical right, which uses them as its own fuel, and returned to all Croatian citizens, "Bagic said, adding that Cipek saw this as a sign that this is the path to their end, that is, to their margins, where modern European societies place them anyway. 5) Serbs in Croatia are moving away from official Belgrade "While Belgrade pursues such policies, it will mean separating the Croatian Serb leadership from Serbia as it is at the moment. A move that does not agree with what Aleksandar Vucic is saying could prompt policies in which it is clear that Serbs in Croatia know they will not be able to solve problems if Croatia does not turn it into a modern European country, and it can only do so if the HDZ becomes a modern center-right party. Just as Croats must understand that the history of World War II cannot be limited to May 1945, so Serbs in Croatia must be aware that the war in the former Yugoslavia that determined their destinies began in the late 1970s and from the Republika Srpska Krajina. " , believes Jakovina. 6) Deep changes in HDZ Jakovina predicts catharsis within the HDZ, which can occur in two ways: by force of the president or by real change. "Plenković now has a great chance to really turn the HDZ into a center-right party and that could be a big deal for Croatia in general. Some softer moves, if not so resolute, Plenković could have taken before. But this could be Plenković's turn and remain important. a moment in which it will be clear that the outrage over the fact that two months after the Storm the old men in the hamlets were killed without trial will not diminish the magnitude of the Croatian victory. Peace means peace for all citizens of the country, not that some can be killed because they are Serbs. This will help the Croatian explanation of itself, but also the policy of Franjo Tudjman . Croatia has been isolated since the second half of the 1990s because of these policies we pursued after the Storm. It is not just a question of Serbs but also of the Croatian state: who she was, what mistakes she made and what we will do to prevent them from happening again