For days, the content and form of the central Zagreb EU ceremony will likely be dissected, the meaning or emptiness of the spoken words, servility, restraint, comfort, absence of delirium.
There is no doubt that there was some euphoria here and there, but the entire event failed to elicit even a single flutter.
The kind that happens in the stomach only a few times in life, say when we fall in love. As if another in a series of historical dates happened to someone else. More in the status of an observer than a participant. Neither the Prime Minister nor the President, nor indeed the EU guests, managed to infuse their speeches with strength, fullness, persuasiveness, joy.
The ‘fragmentation’ of the entire square (two stages, a part designated for the symphony orchestra, a part for statesmen and guests) seemed to symbolically destroy the sense of unity. The feeling of a new beginning. Waves of new ideas. A treasury of lucidity, such as Milanović himself reminded us of while proving why Croats deserve to be part of the EU family – because we had Tesla, Penkala, Vrančić, Prelog…
On that historic night, Croats unfortunately showed why the day after nothing would be different. In the hustle and bustle of journalists and foreigners who visited us from everywhere, one question stood out: why didn’t we use such a unique night as a business opportunity? Why, for example, did no one think to offer something from our historical treasury of lucidity and genius? Surely many would gladly have bought Penkala’s pen, Tesla’s generator, Vrančić’s parachute. Souvenirs, of course. There were, admittedly, domestic products, those offered at every fair. But there was no trace of original ideas, anything connected to EU folklore that could be marketed – not a trace. It is precisely the lack of fresh entrepreneurial blood that keeps the overly bureaucratized Europe away from recovery. We knew that even the new 28th wheel wouldn’t fix things.
Perhaps the absence of fireworks symbolically further stripped the whole affair. The visible kind. The sounds from Bundek, where the final fireworks evening was held, completely engulfed the ceremonial space. Moreover, at that moment, an image of fireworks was spinning on the screen, causing people (reportedly about ten thousand of us, although the subjective impression is that there were fewer) to turn around in confusion, wondering where the phantom fireworks were?
