Stephen Nikola Bartulica is a member of the Croatian Parliament for the Homeland Movement (Domovinski Pokret) and an associate professor of political philosophy at the Catholic University of Croatia in Zagreb. He has served in positions at the highest level of government, most recently as a senior foreign policy advisor to then-prime minister, Tihomir Orešković, in 2016. He is the founder and president of the Center for Renewal of Culture, a Croatian NGO designed to educate young professionals in virtue ethics and leadership.
Croatia is governed by a party that belongs to the European People’s Party (EPP), the question is whether it is a western or eastern EPP party. In Western Europe the EPP is very progressive, while in Eastern Europe there are still conservative EPP parties, such as Janez Jansa’s party in Slovenia. What group does the Croatian government belong to?
The voters of this party are from the eastern EPP, but the leadership is completely Western. There is a paradox here because the voters want a conservative government, but they get more and more progressive policies. I would describe Prime Minister Andrej Plenković as a moderate who at the same time is an enthusiast for Brussels policies. He has devoted much of his career to Croatia’s EU membership, is a supporter of the European Commission’s policies, and is very close to Ursula von der Leyen. He likes the German model, and we know that Angela Merkel led the EPP towards the ‘centre.’ Right now, he governs thanks to the support of the Serb minority, which is a problem because of the excessive influence of this minority over Plenković.
This year Croatia adopted the euro as its official currency.
Yes, Croatia adopted the euro on 1 January—and Plenković presented it as a great triumph. At the same time, we joined the Schengen zone, which I support. The euro is different. I was very critical of the timing because it has caused an increase in inflation, and some have taken advantage of it to raise prices. The reality is that the euro is not a reform in itself, so our economy still has the same weaknesses as in the past. Croatia is not ready to benefit from the euro because the government has failed to implement the necessary structural measures. In the southern countries, such as Greece, Italy, Portugal or Spain, the euro has served to slow down growth, and it would have been better to continue using the national currency. In my opinion, the euro has been very good for the stronger economies, such as Germany, Austria, or the Netherlands, but it has not been beneficial for the weaker economies.
There was an initiative organised by Marco Milanovic MP to hold a referendum on the adoption of the euro, but not enough signatures were collected. Why did this initiative fail?
We initially supported this initiative, but it was not well organised, and a broader coalition in support of the referendum was not formed. Many signatures were collected, but not enough. It is a pity that the population was deprived of the possibility to vote because, I think, the majority would have voted against it.
Is there a truly conservative alternative in Croatia?
I hope so, because that is why I am in politics. I think there are many voters frustrated with Plenković and his turn to the Left, so there is a great potential for conservative political forces. My party is a young organisation that was founded three years ago, and we are in good harmony with other European conservative movements, such as VOX in Spain. In fact, at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Budapest I was able to corroborate this good harmony with VOX MEP Hermann Tertsch. We are critical of the EU and the centralisation of power by the Brussels bureaucracy, and we are not afraid to criticise gender theory and these new ideas of the neo-Marxist Left, which is also present in Croatia.
Is the ‘woke’ ideology present in Croatia?
Yes, through the Mozemo party—meaning ‘we can,’ similar to Podemos, the Spanish far-Left party. Zagreb is under their control, and their main goal is to indoctrinate children through public education. As a parent, it is clear to me that these ideas would never spread in society if the Left had no influence on education, because parents are not interested in ‘woke’ and gender theories. Communism was based on a lie and that is why it failed and fell, so I hope it will be the same with the ‘woke’ ideology. The most important thing is to prevent harm and protect children from these dangerous ideas.
You entered politics three years ago, but before that you were involved in the referendum on marriage.
Yes, I actively participated in the referendum to define marriage as the union of a man and a woman, which was held on December 1, 2013. I was teaching at the Catholic University and publicly supported this initiative which, happily, was supported by 67% of voters. The government at the time was very hostile, but we were able to get enough signatures to force a national referendum and win it. I have to say that it is the only time I have ever been in The New York Times; I got a very disappointed call the next morning asking me why I supported that initiative. I think we have to fight for the family, for marriage, and we also have to take culture more seriously: politics is not enough. We must do like the Left, fight for the hearts and minds of the younger generation.
In this cultural struggle, it is essential to know the past. Was there decommunisation in Croatia or, as in many other countries, did the communists change their jackets?
No, there was not. The former communist elites did not disappear but took part in the transition and in the privatisation of companies, being able to acquire assets and large companies because they were part of the system and had insider information. In contrast, most ordinary Croats, including those in the diaspora, were treated as outsiders and were hindered from participating in the economic transition of the 1990s. They have since consolidated their power and hold positions in universities and the media. After the war in 1995, President Tudjman failed to initiate this decommunization, and Croatia still suffers the consequences today.
In 2009 in Zagreb, I organised a conference of the Centre for the Renewal of Culture for the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. We had great speakers like Lech Walesa, who came from Poland, and I presented a panel on ‘the crimes of communism.’ The then-president, Stjepan Mesić, commented that talking about the crimes of communism was an oxymoron. For him there were no crimes of communism; this is a sign of how these elites continue to deny communist crimes.
In Slovenia, current government ministers pose smiling in front of Tito’s statue and children are dressed up as communist partisans. Is the situation similar in Croatia?
I would say that in Slovenia it is worse, given what Jansa and other friends have told me. In Croatia we have more debates about the past, thanks in large part to the role of the Catholic Church. Although it took too long, in 2017 we managed to change the name of a central square in Zagreb that was named after “Marshal Tito,” but there were still many intellectuals who publicly defended Tito. All in all, our situation is better than the Slovenian one.
The Bleiburg massacre is the greatest crime committed against the Croatian people. How is it possible that there are people in Croatia who defend Tito?
Many of these defenders of Tito call themselves defenders of human rights. However, they have neither time nor patience for the victims of communism, they simply ignore them, so I cannot take their incoherent speech seriously because they do not care about the dignity of the victims and the historical truth. The 8th of May, officially the day of the liberation of Zagreb, is still commemorated by the Left in Croatia, and a week later there are masses and tributes to the victims of Bleiburg. There is controversy and that is why it is so important to keep writing books about historical truth. One example is the British historian, Robin Harris, who has finished a book on modern Croatia from the mid-19th century to Tujdman, and who deals in several chapters with the Second World War and the communist period. There is also a Slovenian historian, Mitja Ferenc, who is doing a book on the excavations of mass graves in Slovenia, whose victims could number up to 100,000, and a young Austrian historian, Florian Thomas Rulitz, who has written a book on Bleiburg in which he argues that the murdered were sacrificed for the sake of Austria’s integrity. According to him, the British handed over all these people to be massacred in exchange for the partisans’ withdrawal from Austria. A very interesting argument about British complicity in this crime.
The Austrian authorities have on several occasions expressed their dissatisfaction with the tributes held in Bleiburg. After the limitations caused by COVID, what is the situation now?
The Austrian authorities no longer allow people to go to Bleiburg, so this year I was in Macelj, the scene of a massacre, where a Mass is held annually on the second Sunday of every month. The Austrian Parliament banned public Mass in Bleiburg and now only allows a Mass to be celebrated in the local Catholic church in Bleiburg. Previously, some 50,000 people came from Croatia to pay homage to the murdered.
Earlier you mentioned the role of the Croatian Catholic Church, a church which, like the Slovenian Church, stands firm in its defence of the victims of communism.
Yes, you cannot be a coward in this matter and the Church must speak out on behalf of all those who were killed for their faith. For example, near Macelj, where I attended the mass for Bleiburg, 21 Franciscan monks were killed in May 1945. The Croatian church is strong and capable of raising its voice for justice and remembrance of all the innocent people who were murdered. The reality is that there is not a single Croatian family that was not affected by the terrible events of 1945. Many families were divided, and it was a bitter fracture within Croatia, and that is something that cannot be erased from history. The new Archbishop of Zagreb, Dražen Kutleša, has pointed out that every human life is sacred and that everyone deserves a burial place where families can remember their loves ones. The communists wanted to take that right away from their victims.
