Ivo Josipović – a president tailored to the current Croatian society

Ivo Josipović is the new Croatian president. If someone had told me back in 1997, quite a while ago, that a professor of criminal law and harmony, whom I met in The Hague as a sort of advisor to the then Croatian Government on matters of the Hague Tribunal, would move into Pantovčak as the president of the state, and not as a presidential advisor, I would have thought they were politically illiterate.

written by: Višnja Starešina

And that he would be elected directly by the citizens and not by political elites. Impossible. Professor Josipović gave the impression that he was not interested in politics at all; he seemed too refined for the Croatian political scene, weighed his words too carefully for a politician, avoided raised voices and open conflict, and one could not even sense the political passion that characterized all our previous presidents and presidential candidates. Let us just recall the previous presidents Tuđman and Mesić, as well as presidential candidates, Gotovac, Tomac, Budiša, Granić…

Regardless of substantive differences, they were all people of exceptional political passion. But times are changing. After all, neither Ivo Josipović nor Milan Bandić, the two presidential candidates who entered the second electoral round, are by their nature politicians who will burn for an idea or ideology; rather, they are primarily users of politics to achieve their (own) goals. Even Josipović’s unfortunate red Croatia, which he announced in Rijeka during the peak of the election campaign, was more an indicator of his lack of political instinct than of his ideological commitment. After all, Josipović experienced his initiation into the public political sphere as an advisor to the HDZ government, primarily as an advisor to the then Granić’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he closely collaborated with Granić’s deputy, the current Minister of Justice Ivan Šimonović.

Josipović, however, was careful not to be politically associated with the HDZ, especially not with its right-wing faction, but he was also quite cautious about connecting with the SDP. He entered the Parliament in his first term from the SDP list, but without a membership card. This politically muted and cautious Ivo Josipović is clearly a president tailored to the current Croatian society, saturated with conflicts, raised tones, and political passions, in which politics is deeply devalued. In this sense, Ivo Josipović is a president we have not had before and will certainly perform his function differently than both of his predecessors.

Therefore, unless there is a sudden drastic change, President Josipović will not be a president who will dive into disputes and conflicts. On the contrary, he will try to calm them. However, this does not mean that Josipović is a president who is afraid of challenges. He simply seeks to achieve his goals quietly and indirectly. And therefore, I believe he will not divide and frustrate the Croatian public. Josipović has absolutely not suffered from political glamour so far, maintaining that casual professor’s style. I remember a summer anecdote from a seminar in Dubrovnik.

Josipović was already a presidential candidate then, and due to some organizational problems, he and Professor Maja Seršić ended up in private accommodation on the day when a water pipe burst. And the landlady decided: the lady, because she is a woman, can shower, the gentleman cannot today. I can imagine the anger of our average politicians in such a situation, in such accommodation. Josipović recounted the event as an anecdote with the remark – but I gained the whole street to vote for me! President Josipović will certainly not embarrass us in his appearances abroad. If he could just immerse himself a little more in representing Croatian interests, and feel a little more the pulse of the base that elected him, he could be a very good president.

Josipović lacks a true sense of political reality and understanding of politics; he is sometimes prone to very stereotypical interpretations of political processes. But this is compensable if he wants to learn. And he is indeed a worthy student, and if he recognizes this as a shortcoming, I believe he will strive to learn it – because above all he wants to be a good president. He will certainly find common ground with Prime Minister Kosor and with any other prime minister. His connection with the SDP, to which he owes his presidential candidacy, will probably not exceed the boundaries of ideological closeness and gratitude. Josipović is definitely not a party soldier. He is more inclined to use the party for his own goals than to serve it. If Croatia had a coherent development vision and foreign policy strategy, Ivo Josipović could be a very good implementing president. But, that does not exist. Whether President Ivo Josipović will have the strength to gather a team that will help devise the content of Croatia’s development strategy and (foreign) policy, we will only test after his entry into Pantovčak.