Croatia Awaits Revelations from Ex-PM Sanader’s Book

Ivo Sanader. Photo: Beta

Croatian daily Vecernji list on Thursday will launch what it calls “the most anticipated book of the decade”, written by the former Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, who led the country for several years in the 2000s and was subsequently indicted for alleged corruption.

The book is Sanader’s view of Croatia’s politics, told through his experience as premier and entitled ‘The Age of Politics – De-Tudjmanisation’.

The title is a reference to the ruling HDZ party’s move away from the legacy of its founder, the first democratically-elected Croatian President, Franjo Tudjman, who died in December 1999, after which the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ party lost power to the opposition for the first time.

But Sanader told Vecernji list in an interview on Saturday that there was “a false discourse” both on the right and left that there was such a process during his time as the HDZ’s leader between 2000 and 2009.

“I claim that my politics were a continuation of Tudjman’s politics from the 1990s but contemporary, modernised and presented in the light of the 21st century and through these four major themes – the attitude towards national minorities, especially Serbs, cooperation with the Hague Tribunal [for war crimes], ZERP [the protected ecological fishing belt in the Adriatic Sea] and HDZ reforms,” he said.

He claimed that his politics were “just an upgrade” of Tudjman’s “basic paradigm”.

Vecernji list and some other media have suggested that the book will spectacular revelations that may worry some public figures, but Sanader insisted that this was not his intention.

“No one has to be scared, I don’t write to scare, but in order [that we] know what we have gone through, what was the truth and what are Croatian politics actually,” he said.

He concluded that the topic of the book is “the Croatian political paradigm and discourse about politics in the media mainstream and among politicians”.

Although often seen as a symbol of corruption and largely politically ostracised by his former party, some HDZ veteran members are likely to attend his book promotion at Hotel Esplanade in Zagreb on Thursday, and the subsequent one in Split on July 10.

As Vecernji list is Sanader’s publisher, its editor-in-chief Drazen Klaric and editor Goran Gerovac will present the book, alongside Luka Bebic, a prominent veteran member of the HDZ and former parliament chair, as well as being a close friend of Sanader.

One of Sanader’s former high-ranking political associates, Vladimir Seks, will also come to the book presentation on Thursday.

Sanader, who was Prime Minister from 2003, left his position in the government and the party in July 2009 without much explanation, leaving both positions to his close associate Jadranka Kosor.

Later accused of trying to take back control over the party, he was ejected from the HDZ in January 2010.

Although he returned to parliament later the same year, his immunity was removed for graft charges relating to allegations of crimes during his time as as Prime Minister.

In December 2010, he was arrested by Austrian authorities on warrants from the Croatian state attorney and extradited to Croatia, where he underwent multiple trials for various crimes.

He spent some time in jail before the constitutional court quashed his final eight-and-a-half-year sentence in July 2015, although a case against him continues before Zagreb county court.