N@kovanj: Who is Packing for Milanović, and Who for Krstičević?

The calming of the previously dominant radical rhetoric, as well as the fact that the current pre-election race is taking place during the summer months, has made this campaign (or at least its first part) more bearable than ever before. I recently went on vacation and followed the media somewhat less than usual, but I have no impression that I missed anything particularly important. Perhaps the only truly interesting moment was the debate between the two party leaders, which went smoothly and politely, and I somehow felt that there was no excessive need to follow all party events closely.

Then, just in the week I returned to Zagreb, ‘cases’ such as the accusations against General Krstičević began to pile up, with him being attacked for having been in the JNA for too long at the beginning of the Homeland War. Setting aside the fact that such demagoguery is completely out of reason and rational political thinking, very quickly after the attack on the right, there was also one on the left in the form of a leaked recording of Zoran Milanović’s meeting with representatives of the defenders. There was quite a stir around the recorded material, although the head of the SDP more or less said what could be expected of him, perhaps just in a too casual language for public discourse, but in terms of content, realistically, few should be surprised. I certainly am not.

I do not think that these two cases will overly harm either side, and the SDP might even benefit from it to raise a percentage (we should still wait for polls and see the consequences of the latest events). However, it is quite symptomatic that these two blows followed one after the other in a very short time, and to be completely honest, I am not entirely sure whether they were fired at each other by the two biggest political players. To be fair, the SDP defended Krstičević through Ranko Ostojić, while the HDZ took the opportunity to call out Milanović. However, Andrej Plenković’s first reaction was far below the slam dunk he could have played, and it boiled down to a few phrases about ‘café dilettantism’. So, nothing too excessive for the rhetoric that is usual during the pre-election game.

The real question is actually who these two cases really benefit and whether they are perhaps connected.

Milanović has a somewhat broader range of political opponents, but it does not seem to me that the right, even the hard right, could particularly profit from such an affair except to annoy a possible new prime minister. After all, it is already reported in the media that Velimir Bujanec allegedly did not want to broadcast the mentioned material, assessing that it could bring points to the SDP and its leader on the right side of the political spectrum, after which it was all published by a daily newspaper. If it is true that Bujanec refused to publish, it is quite likely that the leak did not come from the ranks of the radical right, at least not the political one.

All other options still seem open to me. It is possible that someone from the defenders recorded the meeting on their own, but it is also possible that everything was used as part of a broader story by more significant political opponents, perhaps even those who still think they can dip into the political pool of the left while simultaneously benefiting from the discrediting of the other side.

There has also been speculation in the media that Milanović staged everything himself to attract some voters from the center and the right. That is not entirely impossible, but my personal impression is that in that case, the head of the SDP would probably want to present himself in a better rhetorical light than is the case in the recording that reached the public.

Whatever is behind it, it is a shame that the campaign has once again shifted towards sharpening rhetoric and cheap demagoguery, especially since there are a whole range of things on which both parties can be seriously criticized. On the other hand, even these sharpened tones are far milder than what could be heard in the previous campaign, and they are more or less in the realm of dirty campaigning within the framework of democratic games and matches. Fortunately, no one is dealing with Ustaše and partisans anymore, but it seems that we still have quite a way to go to rid ourselves of meaningless debates about trivial matters and turn to what is truly important.