Campaign Has Begun

The election campaign has unofficially started, and so far the minor league parties are those who are making first major moves.

Few weeks ago leaders of HNS Youth hired a van and went to travel on Adriatic Coast and deliver their propaganda material to beach goers. Needless to say, for many local rednecks in Dalmatia HNS – party once founded by one of Croatian legendary nationalist leaders - is "Serbo-Communist spawn of Satan". Sight of those evil people was enough for verbal abuse, but real incident occurred only when HNS Youth van got stoned. That was excellent opportunity for young HNS troopers to yell bloody murder and gain instant media spotlight.

Libra was somewhat less successful in their opening move. I've just heard some stupid radio commercial in which Jozo Radoš (Jozo Rados) tries to remind public that his party exists and only manages to offend female electorate with clumsy and potentially sexist remark.

HIP, most Tudjmanist of all HDZ splinter parties (for the mere reason of having Miroslav Tudjman, Franjo's son and former intelligence chief for its leader), has managed to gain its first Sabor seats by staging defections of two HDZ MSes – Dairo Vukić (Dario Vukic) and Ante Beljo. Whether HIP would manage to keep same number seats after the elections is another matter; smart money is on "not unless they stick themselves to some major league ticket".