The fractional conflicts within the ruling HDZ party in Croatia are analyzed by Marinko Culic in the May 11, 1998, issue of the Split weekly Feral Tribune.

Nobody has to impose sanctions on us, we do that best by ourselves. This is probably the most precise and most concise statement said in recent days concerning the deluge this country is facing.

The statement concerns the heart attack suffered by the banking system created by the runaway of the investors, as well as the fall of value of the only worthy things Croatia can still appear with on foreign stock markets - Zagreb Bank and Pliva /pharmaceutical company/ stocks. But, the statement could also be applied equally to all, or almost all key departments and less explored niches of the Croatian state.

What is occurring for the first time is that at the highest posts in the government there simply isn't anybody. Along with the position of the minister of defence, emptied through a force majeure, also unfilled are the position of the minister of justice, then the head of Tudjman's cabinet, and it is still not known who is the legitimate president of the Supreme Court, nor who will have the real authority over the spider's nest of intelligence services after the departure of Tudjman junior. It could be easily stated that these holes in the elite bodies of the state executive is direct consequence of a fratercide which is raging at the moment between the HDZ factions - but that would not be enough.

It is becoming quite obvious now that no one of the lepers on duty of the Croatian political scene - from the opposition and non - governmental organizations to independent media - cannot destabilize the Croatian state as much as the people who are leading it now. It is small consolation that due to the direct conflict between them, things are starting to leak to the public.

The covert motive of a dramatical surgical intervention, done without a scalpel and blood is to keep along yourself both sides which are devouring each other on the open scene. What is at stake is safeguarding of the position of power, which is now more under threat and more directly at that, than ever before. When the first big shake up at the top occurred in 1994, with the departure of the group of MP's around Mesic and Manolic, Tudjman relatively easy patched things up through extraordinary elections a year later. But, calling of new elections is now the last thing the HDZ would resort to, because parties caught in such robbery elsewhere are not doing it either.




Source: Split weekly Feral Tribune, May 11, 1998