Drugs, Students and Croatian Politics

Croatian government's idea to conduct drug-testing of students in public dorms continues to stir discontent among student population. Today student association of Zagreb Philosophy Faculty held a press-conference, but they weren't the first. First student organisation to attack government's policy was student branch of HSS. This is interesting development, because HSS doesn't only happen to be the part of governing coalition, but also the more conservative, right-wing, traditionalist and presumably more enthusiastic about it than nominally left-wing SDP, whose representatives in Sabor often advocated legalisation of marijuana. Even more interesting is the fact that HSS happens one of the more centralised and autocratic parties on the Croatian political scene. Independent thinkers within HSS have learned not to mess witrh its chairman and Sabor speaker Zlatko Tomčić (Zlatko Tomcic), so there are grounds for speculations about HSS students doing it with the blessing of party leadership – partly in order to win some youth votes, partly to undermine Račan (Racan) and thus establish HSS as independent factor before the elections.