Croatia’s President-elect says ‘crime will not pay’

On January 10, Ivo Josipovic, a law professor and composer, was elected President of Croatia. He will take office in February. One of Josipovic’s main platforms was his pledge to fight corruption and organised crime and this has obviously appealed to the voters. Indeed, the latest Balkan Monitor figures showed that 92% of Croats believed that there was widespread corruption in business (up from 83% in 2006). This figure was the highest in the Balkans.
On the subject of neighbourly relations in the region, Serbia recently filed a lawsuit against Croatia accusing its government of committing genocide in the 1991-1995 Balkan War. This was in response to a similar suit filed by Croatia against Serbia in 1999, also in the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Interestingly, President-elect Josipovic (one of the key figures in Croatia’s original lawsuit) is now saying that there may be a way for both suits to be dropped. This feeling is in line with survey results that showed 51% of Croats saying that neighbourly ties were not strong enough, up from 43% in 2008.