First European vote in Croatia: there is almost total disinterest

Unexpected victory for the center-right opposition party in the choice of Euro MPs

In the ballot boxes only 21%, number of voters halved compared to the referendum for joining the EU

They barely had enough time to become a member state for all practical purposes and the Croatians have already lost interest (and faith) for the Organizations in Brussels.

The data from their first European elections held Sunday to choose the 12 nominees to send to Strasbourg proves it. The unexpected victory of the center-right was not the cause of uproar inasmuch as the scarce turnout of citizens at the ballots: only 21% of those eligible voted – a record number.

The results went against all forecasts: with 33% of the votes won for the opposition, led by the conservatives of Hdz (Croatian Democratic Union) and with 6 positions they will unite with the European People’s Party. The party of the Prime Minister, Zoran Milanovic, only classified in 2nd place with 32% of the votes so there will be 5 Croatian Euro MPs sitting among the ranks of PSE, the European Socialist Party. In the end the last seat went to the Labor Party, a small opposition coalition which obtained the remaining 6% of votes.

By now Croatia is ready to become the 28th state of the EU, yet things seem already to be changed compared to the rather recent January 2012, when the country went to vote for the referendum on entering the EU. In fact only a year ago participation was at 44% of eligible voters with an overwhelming victory for “yes.” Today however Croatian interest has gone down; the number of voters has halved, even brushing historical numbers of Slovakia in 2009, which set the record with 20% of voters.

The reasons for such scarce interest are diverse, according to the philosopher Zarko Puhovski; citizens “understood that nothing significant is decided at the European level and furthermore, many of those are only concerned about how to get to the end of the month.” Moreover, the Croatians are also already dealing with the financial crisis and according to many of them entering the EU will mean in reality nothing more than jumping into the economic problems of Europe. There are plenty of reasons to justify the Croatians’ skepticism; among these we mustn’t forget that the 12 new Euro MPs will have an extraordinarily short mandate – just one year. They will begin work July 1st with the official entry of Croatia in the EU and already in May 2014 they must go to elections again for the European Parliament.

Camilla Tagino