La Fontaine – The Mayor of Croatia’s Competitor is a Blackmailer from Metković

Social networks were delighted by the new nickname for Milan Bandić – La Fontaine. The author of pre-election fairy tales (and fables) and a passionate private investor using public money for fountains. The self-proclaimed candidate for the Mayor of Croatia is convincingly pouring out the most pre-election promises from his sleeves and gifts from the Zagreb budget in fierce competition. And I really think he is truly the only La Fontaine of the new era, until he got a worthy competitor.

The leader of Most, Božo Petrov, along with his team, announced the conditions for post-election cooperation with HDZ and/or SDP. In short, Most will demand that five of its laws from this mandate be voted on in the Parliament first, and only then will its representatives vote for Plenković. Or Milanović. This concerns reducing the sources and amounts of party income, cutting rights and penalizing the absences of parliamentary representatives, urgently adopting Dobrović’s waste management strategy, the jurisdiction of the state audit over HNB, and reducing the number of councilors and officials in municipalities.

The ultimatum that the Most members call a guarantee is an attractive morsel for Plenković and Milanović. However, they will find it hard to be caught even though there is one more important document at stake – on waste management. The rest are trivialities that may please some voters or sadden some politicians, but they have no far-reaching consequences. Savings on parliamentary representatives and local elites are not a key item; HNB will function under European oversight anyway, and the publication of data on the governor’s per diems and expenses will only be food for the public and artillery preparation for the election of a new governor in 2018. I would believe in Most’s efforts to fulfill its promises more if it had blackmailed HDZ and SDP based on its economic program. This way, we have only received another La Fontaine. And we are one step closer to a grand coalition.