Croatian Spin Doctor Assists Serbian Party

[Crvena zvezda]

Croatian Spin Doctor Assists Serbian Party

Ratko Macek29 April 2008 Zagreb _ A former Croatian government spokesman says he is helping a Serbian party in campaigning for the May 11 election.

“I cannot say which party I work for, call me up after the elections,” Ratko Macek told business.hr news portal.

The portal said that “by process of elimination” it had concluded that the party was the nationalist Democratic Party of Serbia, DSS, led by the outgoing Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica.

The DSS’s main competition, the pro-European Democratic Party of President Boris Tadic said Macek was not on their Public Relations consultants’ list.

The opposition nationalist Serbian Radical Party also denied hiring Macek, adding only U.S. PR agencies led their campaigns.

The portal said that the DSS has not either confirmed or denied the report that they sought help from Macek, who co-owns the MPR agency for political marketing and crisis communication.

The agency's main client is the ruling Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, of Prime Minister Ivo Sanader.

In January, when asked if his agency would cooperate with all centre-right political parties in the South-Eastern Europe, including the DSS, he said, "of course, Vojislav Kostunica is my friend."

Though formerly holding a relatively low-profile political post of the spokesman, Macek is known to be one of the most influential HDZ members. He has been credited for the HDZ victory in the general elections in Croatia at the end of 2007 which secured Sanader's second term. LOL

One of the most quoted statements by Macek was given in an interview with Croatian daily Novi List in 2007, over Sanader’s apparent love for expensive watches. "One should not be in politics unless they own a house, two cars at least and euro 50,000 savings at least! Who would trust a prime minister who lives in a 30 square meters flat!" he said.

Serbia’s coalition government collapsed in March due to differences between nationalist and pro-Western ministers over Serbia’s future relations with the European Union after the majority of member states recognised Kosovo’s independence.

Croatia recognised Kosovo as an independent state last month.

Last week Radical Party leader Tomislav Nikolic said Sanader was his personal model he would like to follow if his party won the May 11 vote.

[Marcus Marulus]

Ratko Maček? A disgusting, fat slimy bastard. He is one of the reasons why I detest today's liberal democracy so much. It brings the worst of the worst on the surface. It is like a flood making all rats to abandon the gutter and swarm the city.





He founded his so-called "agency for the political marketing" (MPR) with the state money, when his party (HDZ) won the last elections, four years ago. It was meant to be a government agency of sorts, but he privatized it afterwards. The government of which he was spokesman (Sanader's government, that is) led the most disastrous policy of all Croatian governments ever (selling out sovereignity, subservience to EU, NATO etc.) Through his political connexions with the ruling party Maček gained shares in some of Croatia's major firms, for example, in the shipyard of Split. A particularly vulgar and arrogant creature.

(Note: Marulus is not a sympathiser of any of Croatia's major parties, so this opinion is unrelated to any sort of sectarianism)

The agency's main client is the ruling Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, of Prime Minister Ivo Sanader.

Maček is their client, and not vice versa. Because they created him and his agency and he is indebted to them.

In January, when asked if his agency would cooperate with all centre-right political parties in the South-Eastern Europe, including the DSS, he said, "of course, Vojislav Kostunica is my friend."

This is something that should woory Serbs more than Croats. If Koštunica has such friends...

Though formerly holding a relatively low-profile political post of the spokesman, Macek is known to be one of the most influential HDZ members. He has been credited for the HDZ victory in the general elections in Croatia at the end of 2007 which secured Sanader's second term.

There is no special magic in the victory of HDZ at November elections. Croatia has split itself in two voting herds, within the two-party system, like the most of the rest of Europe. Each party has two stable voting herds, the third group being the "undecided" who at every election decide to vote for this or that party (left and right) due to some promises made by the politicians of the respective parties or simply, because some people desire change at any cost, having been fed up with watching the same person as prime minister for the next term. Political marketing is usually aimed at those "undecided", since the voting herds (I use intentionally this animalistic term) know in advance who they will cast ballots for. It is a principle that prevails in most countries infected with the plague of liberal democracy.

One of the most quoted statements by Macek was given in an interview with Croatian daily Novi List in 2007, over Sanader’s apparent love for expensive watches. "One should not be in politics unless they own a house, two cars at least and euro 50,000 savings at least! Who would trust a prime minister who lives in a 30 square meters flat!"

He is just borrowing cheap American stereotypes, namely, that the politician must be rich. It is usually said that being wealthy prevents a politician from taking bribes. Which is a stupid assertion, based on the naive view of human beings as purely rationalistic creatures which won't strive for more once they satisfied their basic needs. We know from experience that a man with low income will take low bribes, whilst a politician with a high income will take a high bribe. If he is willing to take bribes. Whether or not he will be bribed depends not on the level of his income but on his personal attitude towards that.

Last week Radical Party leader Tomislav Nikolic said Sanader was his personal model he would like to follow if his party won the May 11 vote.

Really? That can only mean that Nikolić is ready for asylum. Or he lacks true informations on Sanader.