Rule by Orthrus

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković has overseen fantastic economic growth and integrated the Balkan country more tightly within the European Union.

These moves have been welcome in a nation whose first president after independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, Franjo Tudjman, fostered a personality cult and behaved like an autocrat, as Balkan Insight wrote. Since Tudjman’s death 25 years ago, the country has Westernized significantly.

Croatia’s Oscar nominee this year is a film about homosexual men in the 1950s – a sign of cultural openness that is breaking conservative, Balkan taboos. The government is offering incentives to young Croats to come back home, reversing the brain drain that has hobbled the region, added Croatia Week. Women are studying in tech boot camps to improve their businesses, according to Euronews.

To reward his efforts for fostering these kinds of developments, voters gave Plenković’s center-right Croatian Democratic Union a fourth electoral victory in April.

Even so, Croatian President Zoran Milanović of the opposition center-left Social Democratic Party is on track to defeat the Croatian Democratic Union and win a second term as head of state when Croats go to the polls in the presidential election’s first round on Dec. 29, reported Agence France-Presse.

Interestingly, Milanović and Plenković have diametrically opposed policies.

A populist who has been called the “Croatian Trump,” Milanović has for instance criticized the EU’s strident opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, leading Plenković to accuse the president of harboring pro-Russian views.

Inflation and a host of other economic woes stemming from the coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine are undoubtedly factoring into the political situation. But the bigger issue is corruption.

Plenković recently fired Health Minister Vili Beroš after police arrested Beroš during an anti-corruption raid. Among Beroš and his affiliates’ alleged crimes, as Politico explained, was selling medical devices to hospitals at inflated prices after bribing public health officials. Beroš has denied the charges.

Plenković, understandably, has sought to distance himself from his cabinet member. “I am appalled by the idea that anyone in the health system would use their position for personal gains or for favors to anyone else,” he said at a press conference covered by the Associated Press. “The health system is a particularly sensitive department.”

Social Democrats in parliament initiated a vote of no confidence against Plenković, but he survived, Reuters noted.

After polls close, however, it might be a different story.

That’s because of his appeal to voters regarding everyday economic issues, which is also Plenković’s biggest weakness, wrote World Politics Review: “After a period of double-digit inflation, there remains a stark contrast between Croatia’s impressive topline economic figures and people’s lived experience in one of the EU’s least-affluent countries.”