Modern, democratic constitutions are supposed to be ideologically neutral. Obviously, this is not the case with the Croatian constitution. Therefore, we can conclude that Croatia is an ideological state. But the problem is not in the current authorities, the Tudman's regime which is inserting ideological elements into the foundation of the state. It is obvious that no one outside that regime, neither the opposition, nor social scientists, nor socially and politically responsible intellectuals, is bothered by this intervention. This tendency is far more dangerous for the Croatia than the authoritarian rule of the current regime. It testifies about the consensual support for such open ideologization. The whole society has been put in service of the Croatian nationalist ideology.
Therefore, it is not surprising that the nationalist ideology is dominant in the President's address about the state of nation in 1996. He is warning, almost in panic, about the possibility of the future integration of the states coming out of dissolution of the former Yugoslavia. Supposedly, individuals in the country and abroad, various non governmental organizations in Croatia and abroad, and even some states whose leading politicians want to push young Croatian state into some new Balkan association are tirelessly working on this.
"Any intelligent and well informed citizen of our state can easily conclude what such an association, regardless of whether it is Yugoslav, Balkan or Southeast European, would mean for Croatia. Based on its geopolitical position, its fourteen centuries long history, civilization and culture, Croatia belongs to the central European and Mediterranean circle in Europe. Our political links with the Balkans between 1918 and 1990 were just a short episode in the Croatian history and we are determined not to repeat that episode ever again! Cooperation, actually integration with our southern neighbors, which is suggested as a precondition for the relations with the European Union, would cause economic decline, and after a while would result in political links which would be the negation of everything that Croatia achieved with its newly won independence."
This open fanning of paranoia from the top of the state and society has several functions.
Firstly, it is necessary because Croatian nationalists are fighting for their political and historical identity. Obviously, any new integration with southeastern neighbors would not result in economic decline, as the President warns, but exactly the opposite: with the integration in the European Union and therefore in economic prosperity, as we are explicitly told in the very same sentence. But then we would have to question the meaning of the Croatian national revolution, purpose of the lives which were lost for the homeland, the real role of the Croatian independence fighters in our recent history. It could turn out that many a Croatian great man appears in all his political and human poverty, as a negligible historical personality whose crimes were a curse for himself and his "beloved" people.
The other function of this paranoid discourse is the production of enemies, a group of foreign criminals and domestic traitors in paid service of foreign powers who will be blamed for all future problems. They will be responsible for anything bad which befalls Croatia, while our happiness will depend on the success with which such enemies are successfully or unsuccessfully exterminated. Hence, the Croatian authorities will avoid responsibility for any future problems.
Finally, this outburst of Tudman's and Croatian balkanophobia has a character of a too nervous, panic reaction: it is an expression of the deepest frustration caused by the fact that the Croatian vision of its European identity has never been recognized in the only place where such recognition would make sense - in Europe itself! Namely, for Europe, Croatia in its violent secession from the defunct Yugoslavia confirmed itself as a true Balkan country.
"Zagreb has been infected by a virus. Since the 1919 signing of the Versailles peace accord this virus has been poisoning Croatian souls. The infected are overcome by a sort of a panic. They are afraid that in some way they will be connected with the Balkans. In the eyes of Croats, the Balkans is somewhere else," writes the author of the article Marco Finn Canonica. He tried to understand contemporary Croatia by describing the microcosm of the Esplanade hotel. He told a story about the fundamental Croatian trauma - the relationship with the Balkans. His story drifts between emphatic, almost well meaning sympathy and cold irony and is a concise presentation of the Croatian debacle of the century. In the eyes of this Swiss journalists, the haste of Croats to once for all finally leave the Balkans keeps pushing them deeper and deeper into that region. Today in the independent Croatia, as well as in the long gone 1919 when they had just joined the Yugoslav commonwealth. Then, a group of wealthy citizens of Zagreb formed a company whose mission was the building of a hotel which was supposed to "inject the European spirit and charm" into the inhabitants of the city. But already in the choice of the architect they made a fatal mistake. They rejected Adolf Loos, who later became one of the most famous European architects and chose a Zagreb architect, certain Dionis Stunko.
"The triumph of local architecture and entrepreneurial spirit" wrote the then Zagreb newspapers. Today, the Weltwoche journalist concludes: "The intentions of the builders turned on their head: the hotel became and still is a typical Balkan hotel."
The Swiss journalist is fascinated by the architectural disaster and kitsch which dominates in the hotel and doesn't flinch from mockery when he describes them: "The massive hotel building (...) is repulsive, as if the architect tried to convey the impression of power forgetting about style. Crowded buffet is as bland as the unfinished symbolic mural on the wall: it depicts male and female bodies which were picked up by a tornado and thrown into space; the women are growing wings and disappearing through the roof. If you wanted to explain the meaning of 'eclecticism' to someone, it would be enough to take that person to the cafe Rubin. The hotel director explains: 'Figures symbolize the elements, fire, earth, air, and water'."
In his conversations with Croatians the Swiss journalist lucidly notices their inability to give a positive definition of Croatian identity. On the contrary; when asked to define Croatia they can only say what it isn't: "We are not barbarians!", "We do not have the tradition of blood revenge like Serbs", "Croatia has never been an antireligious state".
The journalist shows even more lucidity when he notices that this lack of argument, as far as the Croatian identity is concerned, was filled by no one else but Alain Finkielkraut. The Croatians have firmly taken this French philosopher to their hearts, as the Serbs have adopted Peter Handke[Austrian writer who has spoken in defense of Serbia and Serbs]. When the journalist mentioned Finakielkraut's name to a young Croat, former student of philosophy, "he almost saw in me his soul brother".
However, the smart Swiss journalist didn't miss the other side of this sexist attitude towards women. He recalls in his article the relationship of the Balkan society towards women intellectuals.
He also didn't forget the misery of the anti Tudman opposition: "To be in opposition to the regime, I was told, means that a person doesn't totally agree with Tudman's policy. As long as Croatia has enemies in the world, and both women are among them (Slavenka Drakulic and Dubravka Ugresic, author's remark), the country must be united".
The long Weltwoche's article about Croatia is a sad story about the failure of Croatia to impress a foreigner as a civilized European country. The fair of kitsch, clumsiness, immorality, primitive sexist shamelessness, fake dissidents, intellectual insignificance and servility and a lot more, was easily recognised by the Swiss journalist.
He ended the article with an anecdote about the director of the hotel Esplanade who once went to the cinema Europe (former cinema Balkans, nota bene) but she waited for the tickets in vain. The show was sold out. The name of the film? Mission: Impossible
Why should we believe that the story about Croatian Constitution will end differently than the story about the hotel Esplanade? The Constitutional ban on association with the Balkans is what confirms the status of Croatia in the eyes of Europe as a Balkan country.
And our journey to Europe with such a Constitution can only be: MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE