Since failing to win a full majority in April, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković (HZD Party), has sought to cooperate in coalition with the Homeland Movement Party.
Dubravka Šuica, Croatia’s EU Commissioner, has given assurances that the Homeland Movement is not an extremist party and is in favour of the Ukraine and of progress. However, HZD has had to accept the Homeland Movement’s conditions that no member of the Serb Minority Party of the Green ‘Moemo’ party be included in their coalition.
Hrvoje Zovko of the Croatian Journalists’ Association has complained that the new ‘far-right’ party in government is now threatening the free press with its attacks on a state-funded newspaper published for the Serb minority in Croatia, ‘Novosti.’
‘Novosti’ has understandably paid careful attention to nationalist movements within Croatia – where ethnic tensions against Serbs continue to run high – while the Homeland Movement Party seem its editorial line to be ‘unpatriotic.’
The Croatian Journalists’ Association has stated that death threats have been made against Novosti’s journalists, while a more moderate position taken Croatian nationalists is that Novosti should simply have its state funding cut.
The country has overall performed well in terms of economic progress since the Yugoslav war, with GDP per capita to reach $45,700 this year.
