In addition to the damage that is counted in empty billions and huge holes in the ground, the earthquakes that struck Zagreb in March of the year whose name is not mentioned, and then Petrinja in December of the same year, opened another, particularly deep hole, but not in the ground, rather in the HDZ. As will be shown almost two years later, the earthquakes revealed the complete bankruptcy of Croatian political talent, if it can even be discussed in the context of Croatian politics, and elementary competence.
At the time of writing this text, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković has not yet managed to find a replacement for the fallen (former) Minister of Construction Darko Horvat, nor a permanent director of the Reconstruction Fund, which may be the most significant examples of the ‘shallow bench’ available to the Croatian political elite. It is worth adding that in a government that has changed more ministers than it can count, unless euros and kunas are concerned, the only truly capable minister is not a party person. It is, not a challenge to guess, the Minister of Finance Zdravko Marić. The final proof after which the jury has nothing more to think about is the rejection of Stjepan Čuraj as a replacement for the Minister of Construction by the coalition partners themselves, even some in the ruling party. He was evidently so unacceptable that even people practically exclusively intended to raise their hands for the proposals of the majority party heartily and successfully resisted his appointment.
Gentle whispering will not help
If the largest party in the country has to panic for weeks searching through directories on their mobile phones and scraping the very bottom of the political offer, then it is clear how devastated the ‘pool’ of political, and seemingly non-political, talents in this country is. It turns out that no one even remotely competent and at least somewhat honest wants to have anything to do with politics, and that is a serious problem. No matter how much people despise politics and politicians, someone must govern the state, and it is desirable that these are somewhat capable people. However, such people are evidently running out in the ‘Republic of Peckham’. Indeed, the labor market has completely dried up.
