Former Croatian President Ivo Josipovic was a guest on the morning programme "Novi dan" with Tihomir Ladisic, where he commented on current political developments.

Josipovic looked back on N1 Television’s 10 years of work and pointed out the big difference between then and now.

“I believe that many things worked better back then, if we look at the relationships within the government. The then Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor and I had different views, but there were never any public disputes. We met here and there, sometimes in her office, sometimes in mine, and always sought an understanding and a compromise,” he said.

The main difference – no compromise

“The key difference is that there is no compromise today. This is the result of social development, and secondly, we are all different people. In some matters the president can do more, but in many matters the prime minister has more powers. We have built such a system, but I am not sure if it is the most democratic, because we see that power cannot be formed by the will of the voters, but by tokenism and political corruption. The legitimacy of such a government is weaker than that of the president,” he added.

Regarding the relationship between the president and the prime minister, he said these are anomalies that cannot be fixed until society fundamentally changes.

On the idea of changing laws to curtail the powers of future Croatian presidents, he said this was unconstitutional.

“A systematic culture of conflict is being created”

“I have heard that what is planned is absolutely unconstitutional. What the parliament decides is not constitutional, because the constitution does not give it the power to decide by a two-thirds majority on missions that are not related to combat operations, and that is clear to everyone,” he said.

He believes that President Zoran Milanovic did not refer the matter to the Constitutional Court because such a discussion is convenient for both him and the Prime Minister.

“I see everything that is happening around this NATO mission as a domestic political battle. It would be terrible to claim that the president is serving Russian interests. If someone has proof of that, let them present it. It’s not hard to prove, especially when it comes to funding. A systematic culture of conflict is being created,” he said.

Date of the Presidential Election

Regarding the possible date of the presidential election, he says that he himself experienced the election around Christmas and New Year.

“We adhered to the constitutional deadlines after the death of President Franjo Tudjman. It is absolutely inappropriate to campaign at this time. A constitutional decision should be made to either extend the term of the president, whoever that may be, so that the election can be moved to the spring, when campaigning can take place in the open and citizens can focus on making a choice. Now voters are not in the best position to follow programmes and politicians are not in the best position to present them,” he said.

Referring to the US presidential election, he said humanity has never accurately predicted what to expect. “This is a serious moment in history, not only because of the war in Ukraine, but also because of the wars in Africa, the Middle East and the unrest in South America. At first glance, it seems that we have never been as close to a global war as we are today. We see weapons being bought and billions being invested. I would prefer investment in education, but realism is something else,” Josipovic emphasised.