The Croatia sample

The final sample for the Croatia case study includes 11 commentaries and 1 interview. Table 3 below provides a brief overview of their content.

Table 3. Content overview of the texts included in the Croatia sample.

C01 Božo Skoko, Hrvatska je zaslužila dostojanstveniji finale ulaska u EU [Croatia deserved a grander finale in the EU accession game], published in Večernji list on 1 July 2013

reputation, but also regrets that the country could have made better use of this opportunity by promoting its own success stories.

C02 Gordan Zubčić, Povratak u ekipu kojoj pripadamo [Back into the team where we belong], published in Slobodna Dalmacija on 1 July 2013

In this short commentary, Zubčić celebrates Croatia’s accession into the EU as a return to where the country truly belongs.

C03 Ivo Josipović, Početak budućnosti za našu Hrvatsku [The beginning of the future for our Croatia], published in Jutarnji list on 1 July 2013

Writing in his official capacity of President of Croatia, Ivo Josipović expresses his satisfaction for Croatia’s newly achieved EU membership. European integration, he claims, brings freedom, security and solidarity to Croatian society, and therefore constitutes an excellent opportunity to achieve social consensus.

C04 Josip Leko, EU je šansa koju moramo iskoristiti [The EU is an opportunity we have to take advantage of], published in Jutarnji list on 1 July 2013

Josip Leko, Speaker of the Croatian Parliament at the time, embraces EU membership as an opportunity for Croatia to progress. He acknowledges that Croatia has made significant efforts to promote the European project, and that this has shaped Croatian society in profound ways. Moreover, he calls attention to Croatia’s role in stabilising the region of South-Eastern Europe, and points out its need to take a proactive role within the European context.

C05 Jurica Pavičić, Između katedrala i balkanskih gudura [Between cathedrals and Balkan crevices], published in Jutarnji list on 1 July 2013

Pavičić advances the view that Croatian national identity is based upon a unique combination of two paradoxes: first, Croatia is a majority Catholic country in the Balkans; second, Croats are Mediterranean Slavs. According to Pavičić, the lack of an organic national identity is also the reason why Croats are particularly fond of symbolic representations of togetherness.

C06 Milan Jajčinović, Od danas počinje novo hrvatsko povijesno vrijeme [Today begins

Croatia’s new historical era], published in Večernji list on 1 July 2013

Jajčinović’s opinion piece presents EU accession as a great opportunity for Croatia to achieve progress and prosperity, but also emphasises what Croatia brings to Europe. By becoming a EU member state, he argues, Croatia has broken away from the Balkans and its mentality, and finally returned to the European cultural and civilisational environment. C07 Miljenko Jergović, Zemlja bez privrede i bez rudnih blaga, s mnogo vode i vjetra [A

country without an economy or mineral treasures, with plenty of water and wind], published in Jutarnji list on 1 July 2013

In this commentary, Jergović, a well-known writer and columnist of Bosnian descent, spells out Croatia’s unique cultural and natural features. After providing a brief history of Croatian statehood, he stresses how Croatian culture is the product of a mixture of different cultural influences coming from the East and the West. He also contends that Croatia is a very rich country in spite of its current economic crisis.

C08 Nino Raspudić, Probudili smo se kao građani EU! Što će nam biti novi cilj? [We have awakened as EU citizens! What will be our next goal?], published in Večernji list on 1 July 2013

Political analyst Nino Raspudić advances the claim that EU accession, instead of being the object of rational deliberation, has been constructed as an irrefutable dogma in Croatian public discourse. Although he believes that EU membership has not brought substantial changes to Croatian society, he expects it to produce a normalisation of the Croatian political spectrum.

C09 Marina Šerić, Postali smo dio europske bauštele. Zasućimo rukave i počnimo raditi [We have joined the European construction site. Let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work], published in Večernji list on 2 July 2013

Šerić’s commentary draws an analogy between the European project and a construction site, arguing that Croatia should take the opportunity to take part in the project in a creative and mature way.

C10 Nino Raspudić, Tko o čemu, oni o regiji, ali tko ih je ovlastio da Opatiju i Banju

Koviljaču opet guraju u istu državu? [Let them rattle on about the region, but who

authorised them to push Opatija and Banja Koviljača into the same country again?], published in Večernji list on 5 July 2013

In his second opinion piece included in the Croatia sample (see the first above), Raspudić criticises the idea that EU membership implies that Croatia should seek new forms of regional association with the other post-Yugoslav countries. This idea, he claims, has no popular support or democratic legitimation, and its realisation would be against Croatia’s interests.

C11 Josip Jović, Hoće li Europa umjeti da pjeva… [Will Europe be able to sing…], published in Slobodna Dalmacija on 7 July 2013

EU-phoric attitudes are largely unjustified, Jović claims in his commentary, because those who will mostly benefit from EU accession are the politicians. Not only have ordinary

people remained rather indifferent, but EU integration also involves a loss of sovereignty, so that Croatia will now be more exposed to external forces and interests.

C12 Katarina Luketić (interviewed by L. Tomičić), Hrvatska je u zabludi ako misli da može

pobjeći od Balkana [Croatia is mistaken if she thinks she can escape from the Balkans],

published in Novi list on 13 July 2013

In this interview about her new book, Balkan: od geografije do fantazije [The Balkans: from geography to imagination], literary critic and essayist Katarina Luketić articulates a critique of stereotypical representations of the Balkans, both in Croatia and in Europe. Particularly, she argues that both the negative perception of the Balkans and the dominance of the return-to-Europe narrative in Croatian public discourse are a result of the nationalist ideology nourished by the Tuđman regime.