so tito, update us on this one, i have no clue really

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4178471.stm

i guess Mr Mesic seems okay?

Hehe, I didn't think it would interest anybody so I never bothered to post something here about it. But hell, since you asked, here it goes.

Mesic is our current centre-left president and he has always had a pretty good relationship with the common folk. He is pretty unpopular among extreme right-wingers because, unlike our previous lefty prime minister who was too scared to do anything of importance, he actually took steps in containing their ramblings. The funny thing is that our current centre-right prime minister is showing less tolerance for extreme right wingers than our previous one, but that's a different story now. Overall he's pretty much pro-EU oriented and he's not corrupt or power-hungry. The thing some people dislike about Mesic is that he is sometimes too direct and impulsive, and pretty much and anti-politcally correct. Like for example, Jadranka Kosor is constantly trying to sound compassionate and concerned about poor people although she doesn't seem to do about it much more than just talking. So he always calls her "Suzana" which is a croatian female name, but can allude to crying because suza means a tear. Then there was this right winger wacko who's supposedly a gay and he accused Mesic of kidnapping him. So Mesic said that it was probably a gay organization who kidnapped him and that he won't go into what they did to him, but that he's certain the guy didn't dislike it much. Anyway, regardless of that, he's almost certainly a winner of the second round.

Jadranka Kosor on the other hand is pretty much a cry-baby who only keeps whining all the time and isn't really liked by anyone. She doesn't really have any sort of personality and has always been tugging along stronger players. She's supposedly also been involved in some murky apartment sales and she only graduated at a law university a few years ago (probably only because of her political influence). Most people who vote for her do so only because they support her party, HDZ, which is the strongest party in the parliament. She's also greatly influenced by our current PM, Ivo Sanader and that's probably the reason why he chose her to represent his party. That's why Mesic once said that if she gets elected she can trade his presidential residence for a small office in Sanader's residence and act as his secretary.

Anyway, what was interesting about this election was the sudden rise of a thrid and independent candidate in the first round and that was Boris Miksic. He was an immigrant in the US where he got a lot of money and then he came back with great political ambitions. At first he had a relatively good technology-oriented program, but that failed miserably in the parliamentary elections. Then he switched to right-wing catholic program on these elections and got almost 20% of the votes . After that some newspaper reporters found out that he was beating his wife and that he is denied access to his house in Minessota where his wife lives, then that he stole some patents from his firm, and that he got rich on shady arms exports to Croatia during the war. So his political career is pretty much over, for a while at least.

It is also worth to mention that Mesic would have been the winner of the first round, with Miksic in second place, if it weren't for all the ethnically croatian voters living in Bosnia. Their right to vote in croatian elections is pretty much a remnant of Tudjman's ambitions to take parts of Bosnia for himself, and they always vote for HDZ. What is also interesting that there have been found a few thousands of dead people on Bosnian voting lists, all voting for, guess who - Jadranka. Overall the whole situation with those bosnian votes is pretty much just a big voting fraud.

Well, there, hope this shed some light on the elections here

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Originally posted by DrUg_Tit0 Hehe, I didn't think it would interest anybody so I never bothered to post something here about it. But hell, since you asked, here it goes. Mesic is our current centre-left president and he has always had a pretty good relationship with the common folk. He is pretty unpopular among extreme right-wingers because, unlike our previous lefty prime minister who was too scared to do anything of importance, he actually took steps in containing their ramblings. The funny thing is that our current centre-right prime minister is showing less tolerance for extreme right wingers than our previous one, but that's a different story now. Overall he's pretty much pro-EU oriented and he's not corrupt or power-hungry. The thing some people dislike about Mesic is that he is sometimes too direct and impulsive, and pretty much and anti-politcally correct. Like for example, Jadranka Kosor is constantly trying to sound compassionate and concerned about poor people although she doesn't seem to do about it much more than just talking. So he always calls her "Suzana" which is a croatian female name, but can allude to crying because suza means a tear. Then there was this right winger wacko who's supposedly a gay and he accused Mesic of kidnapping him. So Mesic said that it was probably a gay organization who kidnapped him and that he won't go into what they did to him, but that he's certain the guy didn't dislike it much. Anyway, regardless of that, he's almost certainly a winner of the second round. Jadranka Kosor on the other hand is pretty much a cry-baby who only keeps whining all the time and isn't really liked by anyone. She doesn't really have any sort of personality and has always been tugging along stronger players. She's supposedly also been involved in some murky apartment sales and she only graduated at a law university a few years ago (probably only because of her political influence). Most people who vote for her do so only because they support her party, HDZ, which is the strongest party in the parliament. She's also greatly influenced by our current PM, Ivo Sanader and that's probably the reason why he chose her to represent his party. That's why Mesic once said that if she gets elected she can trade his presidential residence for a small office in Sanader's residence and act as his secretary. Anyway, what was interesting about this election was the sudden rise of a thrid and independent candidate in the first round and that was Boris Miksic. He was an immigrant in the US where he got a lot of money and then he came back with great political ambitions. At first he had a relatively good technology-oriented program, but that failed miserably in the parliamentary elections. Then he switched to right-wing catholic program on these elections and got almost 20% of the votes . After that some newspaper reporters found out that he was beating his wife and that he is denied access to his house in Minessota where his wife lives, then that he stole some patents from his firm, and that he got rich on shady arms exports to Croatia during the war. So his political career is pretty much over, for a while at least. It is also worth to mention that Mesic would have been the winner of the first round, with Miksic in second place, if it weren't for all the ethnically croatian voters living in Bosnia. Their right to vote in croatian elections is pretty much a remnant of Tudjman's ambitions to take parts of Bosnia for himself, and they always vote for HDZ. What is also interesting that there have been found a few thousands of dead people on Bosnian voting lists, all voting for, guess who - Jadranka. Overall the whole situation with those bosnian votes is pretty much just a big voting fraud. Well, there, hope this shed some light on the elections here

For one, I am most definately interested in Balkan affairs, so your political updates are always welcome tito Plus, it's hard for us expats to get good coverage of such events anyway (and i cant be bothered sifting through all the bullshit biased new reports out there)

Yo Tito i was looking at your car last night and nearly fell off my chair laughing...classy huh...you definatly got style man..but i love it..its great

Well, the final results are in and Jadranka failed pretty miserably with getting 34% of the votes, while Mesic won the other 66%. In mainland Croatia the ratio was somewhere about 30:70, but of course, since almost 85% of the bosnian voters voted for Jadranka, that changed the odds a bit in her favor. Now as I've said earlier, the thing that bothers me and most people from mainland Croatia about those bosnian croats is the fact that they are not a real diaspora because they are also a constitutional entity of Bosnia. They don't pay taxes here and they were never citizens of Croatia, the only reason they vote here is because of their declared ethnicity. In other words, they're electing a government that will never rule over them. It's kinda like having australian people vote in british elections because they're descended from the brits.

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Originally posted by Dupz For one, I am most definately interested in Balkan affairs, so your political updates are always welcome tito Plus, it's hard for us expats to get good coverage of such events anyway (and i cant be bothered sifting through all the bullshit biased new reports out there)

Well, as for other Balkan affairs, there's not much happening nowadays. Slovenia is a fully pledged EU member now meaning it's become a boring country, Croatia is kinda catching up on that and we'll probably be a member by 2009.

As for the other countries..eh..unstable is the first word that comes to mind. Bosnia is still internally divided in 3 parts, and the only thing keeping them together is the international jurisdiction that pretty much controls everything in the country, regardless of their formal sovereignity. And although croatian entity has formally lost its independence, and same thing will probably happen soon with the serbian one as well, the people there simply don't have any desire to live together anymore. So peaceful split is more or less imminent in the future.

Serbia is fucked up as usual, radical nationalists there still enjoy the support of a pretty large part of the population (about 35% last time I've heard). The society is still very influenced by criminals that emerged from the war and corruption is huge. Nobody knows how Kosovo will end up, and Vojvodina is starting to demand more autonomy these days. Montenegro has shown desires to become independent of Serbia, although large portion of the population is against it, so it's hard to tell how it will all end up. Montenigro's primary source of income is smuggling cigarettes, alcohol, stolen cars, and drugs. Same goes for Bosnia and partially for Serbia as well.

Macedonia is pretty peaceful lately, they no longer seem to have conflicts with the local albanians, and I haven't seen them on the news for quite a while.

Well, there, hope you like my little overview of the ex-Yu countries. Btw, where are you from originally?

And zig, thanx for the comment about the car. I see you're one of those rare people who realize the beauty of kitsch

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Originally posted by DrUg_Tit0 Well, the final results are in and Jadranka failed pretty miserably with getting 34% of the votes, while Mesic won the other 66%. In mainland Croatia the ratio was somewhere about 30:70, but of course, since almost 85% of the bosnian voters voted for Jadranka, that changed the odds a bit in her favor. Now as I've said earlier, the thing that bothers me and most people from mainland Croatia about those bosnian croats is the fact that they are not a real diaspora because they are also a constitutional entity of Bosnia. They don't pay taxes here and they were never citizens of Croatia, the only reason they vote here is because of their declared ethnicity. In other words, they're electing a government that will never rule over them. It's kinda like having australian people vote in british elections because they're descended from the brits.

That is extremely wierd but interesting...
They almost sound like 'spoiler' votes...

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Thanks for the info tito, very interesting

I think ill have to get out my geography book again...it seems very strange..but thats political agreements for you..the same thing applies in Ireland (northen ireland) under a political agreement reached in 1994..basically any person from Northern Ireland who considers themselves technically speaking irish (from the Republic of Ireland)is allowed to vote in the Irish Republic elections if they hold a passport and are registered to vote even though they have an address in Northern Ireland and only pay tax into the British system as Northern Ireland is still a British jurisdiction....so far it hasnt caused any problems here..but probably a similar situation to Croatia...

quote:

Originally posted by zig I think ill have to get out my geography book again...it seems very strange..but thats political agreements for you..the same thing applies in Ireland (northen ireland) under a political agreement reached in 1994..basically any person from Northern Ireland who considers themselves technically speaking irish (from the Republic of Ireland)is allowed to vote in the Irish Republic elections if they hold a passport and are registered to vote even though they have an address in Northern Ireland and only pay tax into the British system as Northern Ireland is still a British jurisdiction....so far it hasnt caused any problems here..but probably a similar situation to Croatia...

Yeah, well, that's pretty much it here as well. I'm not even sure about the passport part, but it doesn't really matter because they're not hard to get. You just pretty much have to go to croatian embassy and say that you're croatian and you'll most likely get one immediately.

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Your reply about Serbia is very interesting..the same applies for Northern Ireland..exactly the same problems in a post war conflict but probably not to the same extent..a lot of the so called ex terrorists in Northern Ireland are now involved in smuggling..drugs..alcohol..prostitution..even petrol because of the different excise rates between Ireland and the UK..in the last few weeks the IRA carried out the biggest bank robbery ever committed in Britian..approx 50 million dollars..they still havnt found the money (and they probably wont) but all fingers point to ex IRA terrorists as the culprits..its even now so rediculious that the Northern Bank (from where the money was stolen) have said in the last week that they will issue new notes (currency) so the criminals wont be able to use the money that was stolen..they are recalling all the current notes to put them out of circulation..this will take months and by then the stolen money will be laundered...bonkers but true...

Heh, just occured to me, Mesic has also been a president of the former SFRJ. I wonder if there's been any other case in history when one person was the president of two different countries...

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