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Croatia Political Briefing: Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković's ISSN: 2560-1601 Vol. 23, No. 1 (HR) November 2019 Croatia political briefing: Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković’s initiative to change the dates of national holidays Benjamin Petrović 1052 Budapest Petőfi Sándor utca 11. +36 1 5858 690 Kiadó: Kína-KKE Intézet Nonprofit Kft. [email protected] Szerkesztésért felelős személy: Chen Xin Kiadásért felelős személy: Huang Ping china-cee.eu 2017/01 Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković’s initiative to change the dates of national holidays Summary In October 2019 during the Government session, the Prime Minister of Croatia, Andrej Plenković, suggested a legislative initiative with a goal to change the dates of certain Croatian national holidays. In his presentation of a potentially new calendar of holidays, Plenković explained the reasoning behind such a proposal. The stance of the Government is that by alterations of dates of national holidays, a lot of existing confusion will be avoided, and the new dates will be in a more appropriate correlation with the important events in the history of Croatia. Croatian independence and the first marking of Statehood Day In order to achieve a clear perspective on the matter, it is important to look into historical and political aspects that were the backdrop for the establishment of Croatian national holidays and memorial days, especially Statehood Day, and events which caused their changes. The main object of discussion, and the most emphasized holiday regarding the necessity to change, is Croatian Statehood Day, a holiday which already faced alterations of its marking. Since the formation of independent and sovereign Republic of Croatia in 1991, until 2001, Croatian Statehood Day was marked on the 30th of May in accordance with the date of constitution of the first multi-party parliament in 1990. It must be noted that the afore-mentioned date received a high level of reasoning and identification from the people of Croatia for multiple reasons. The first reason is the historical context shaped by the gruelling war for Croatia’s independence caused by the breakup of Yugoslavia. In the harsh times of the early nineties, every action and event that led to statehood and implied sovereignty, was not only political, but also symbolic as a gesture of growing identity and national cohesion. Another reason, that stems from the first one, is the fact that on the 30th of May 1990, the constitution of the first democratic parliament raised awareness that Croatia is politically evolving into a self-reliant state with independent institutions. Therefore, it is considered that the mentioned date serves as the beginning of actions which led towards Croatia’s independence. 1 A political shift and the second marking of Statehood Day On the turn of the century, in the aftermath of the death of the first Croatian president Franjo Tuđman, Croatia was facing a significant political shift. The democratic transition that began implied a change of course of Croatia’s political system from presidential towards parliamentary. The bearer of such developments was a new social-democratic government, led by Prime Minister Ivica Račan, whose mission was to steer Croatia towards integration in international organizations such as NATO and the European Union, by means of solidifying its democratic principles and achieving consolidation of modern democratic values with political reality. In line with many of the novelties introduced, the government of that time considered that there is a more appropriate date in Croatian history that could function as Statehood Day. That date was the 25th of June, the day on which in 1991 the Croatian Parliament made a Constitutional decision of Croatia’s independence and sovereignty, proclaiming the Republic of Croatia as an independent state. Additionally, such action is regarded as the inception of breaking up of all ties with Yugoslavia. The mentioned idea came to fruition, and since 2001, 25th of June is marked as Croatian Statehood Day, while the former date, the 30th of May, is marked as Memorial Day – Day of Croatian Parliament. The obvious logic behind such a shift is the constitutional framework that encompasses the date of the 25th of June in Croatian history thus giving it more political weight and implication of statehood. In the same year, besides the change of the date of Statehood Day, Račan’s government introduced an additional national holiday – Independence Day. The new holiday was marked on the 8th of August on which in 1991 the Croatian Parliament made a unanimous decision to finalize the process of breakup of all state and legal links with other republics and territories of Yugoslavia. Public perception It is of value to note that the discussed changes which were implemented in 2001 caused quite a confusion in the public, primarily because the previous date of Statehood Day, 30th of May, was already rooted in the people’s consciousness. Such conundrum gave birth to a developing lack of awareness from the public towards national holidays, and therefore relativization of their historical and political value. Throughout the years, the results of many surveys had shown that Croatian public often mistakes the dates of national holidays with each other, and is not even sure what events those holidays represent. Naturally, the shifts that occurred in 2001 cannot be rendered as the specific reason for the lack of sense towards national holidays. It is important to mention that it is only one of several interconnected reasons for the 2 troublesome phenomenon. For example, the processes of democratic transition in Croatia were not implemented thoroughly enough and in the right time, therefore they rose in an environment of high levels of corruption, political and ideological divisions, ineffective judiciary system and inadequate political structures and actors. Considering those issues that are troubling Croatia to this day, it is easier to comprehend the detachment of Croatian public from its nation’s holidays. Prime Minister Plenković’s proposal Along the lines of mentioned confusion, it is not a surprise that multiple political leaders in modern Croatian history, such as former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, suggested a reverse of the date of Statehood Day back to the 30th of May. Of course, majority of such requests were populist attempts to appease the public, especially facing the elections. However, the current Prime Minister Andrej Plenković is the first one whose Government made steps to translate such suggestions into reality. On a few occasions Plenković described the 30th of May as the date of which “…symbolism had strongly entered the emotions, feelings and the memory of a high number of Croatian people.”, and talked about the clear identification of the public with the mentioned date. Mere suggestions came to motion on a Government session in October 2019 when Plenković came forth with a proposition of a new calendar of national holidays. According to the proposal, Statehood Day would be marked, as before, on the 30th of May, called by Plenković “…a day of democracy, most relevant and very well accepted by the Croatian people.” Furthermore, the current date of marking the Statehood Day, the 25th of June, would become Independence Day, and the current Independence Day, marked on the 8th of August, would become the Day of Croatian Parliament. Both of those dates would not be national holidays, but memorial days. In order to keep the number of non-working days the same, and therefore ensure no negative effects on national economy and public sensibility, Plenković also suggested an implementation of a new national holiday, The Day of Remembrance of the victims of Croatian War of Independence and the Day of Remembrance of the victims of Vukovar and Škabrnja, marked on 18th of November. It is valuable to stress that Plenković’s proposal of a new calendar of national holidays still has to enter legislative procedure which implies the analysis from the Legislation Committee, working bodies and parliamentary debate prior to adopting the bill consisting the discussed proposition. 3 The reactions from the opposition The legislative procedure in adopting the initiative could be quite a lengthy and conflicting process, considering the reactions from the political opposition. Unimpressed by Plenković’s suggestion, opposition leaders consider it to be another populist method of distracting the public from issues troubling Croatian society such as poverty, unemployment, troubling demography, corruption and many more. Also, opposition representatives and certain political analysts have stated that the 30th of May is not as significant in terms of statehood as the 25th of June. For them, the 25th of June is the date when Croatia achieved its constitutional sovereignty and therefore political independence from the countries and territories of Yugoslavia. Thus, they believe that the constitutional foundation makes the 25th of June the more logical option to mark the Statehood Day. Another disagreement emerges from the fact that on the 30th of May 1990, by forming the first multi-party parliament and creating the foundation for Croatian institutional independence, Croatian Democratic Union, the party of Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, took the role of political authority and consolidated its power. Therefore, the opposition believes that the goal of changing the date of National Day back to the 30th of May is the instrument of Croatian Democratic Union to remind the Croatian public that the steps towards independence began under its administration. Conclusion Taking everything into account, regarding the dates of national holidays and memorial days, there is an obvious necessity to create a clear perspective on the most important events, decisions and acts which had the greatest effect on Croatia’s path to independence and statehood. Moreover, such a perspective must be common and unanimous among all the sides of political spectrum and the Croatian people, because if it is not, and if a shared vision of the significant events in creating a state does not exist among its people and leaders, the sole idea of statehood on philosophical and political level can be questioned.
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