Scorched Earth and Subterranean Blues: Notes on the Landscape of the Democratic Left in Croatia

Abstract

This article examines the recent trajectories of the Croatian progressive civil society and the party-political Left. We place emphasis on an analysis of supply-side factors implicated in the left-wing impasse after the disintegration of Yugoslavia, as well as in the current changing situation on the Croatian Left. In conclusion, we present some thoughts on the Left’s major strategic challenges, emphasizing the importance of a pluralistic system of alliances and of an accumulation of material, cultural and intellectual resources for an authentic rebirth of the Left.

Keywords:

• Croatia
• civil society
• trade unions
• political parties
• media
• the historical bloc

Notes

1. This “New Left’s” historic contribution to progressive thought and activism in Croatia has not been a politically credible replacement of more classical left-wing strategies, but an infusion of a more liberal and libertarian ethos, or at least ideology, as well as the introduction of previously neglected topics into the realm of progressive thought and practice. This has included issues of gender egalitarianism, environmentalism and animal rights. Unsurprisingly, the latter issue is still least established as a conventional left-wing concern, although it is animals who are subjected to darkest exploitation and brutality by human society.

2. HDZ (Hrvatska demokratska zajednica – Croatian Democratic Union) is the main centre Right party in Croatia, which ruled the country, in a radically nationalist fashion, under the late President Franjo Tuđman during the war following the breakup of Yugoslavia (1991–1995).

3. For instance: “The Croatian Labour Party advocates imprisonment until death (…) for paedophile recidivists and dealers of a large quantity of drugs” (Croatian Labour Party Programske smjernice Hrvatskih laburista).