Importance of April 22nd

April 22nd is in the rest of the world known as the Earth Day. For me this date has additional meanings – it happens to be birthday of not one, but two persons I care very much for.

It is also the date that might become another in long line of Croatian national holidays. On April 22nd 1990, thirteen years ago, Croatia had its first multi-party democratic elections (at least in recent memory; there were few more-or-less free elections in the last decades of Habsburg rule). The overwhelming winner of those elections was HDZ and its leader Franjo Tudjman, so things, at least in the short term, didn't turn out that good for Croatia; but for the first time in history Croatians had only themselves to blame.