SOMEONE ELSE

It sounds crazy, but the fight against corruption seems to have become a kind of advertisement for corruption.

Croatia has been fighting corruption for more than twenty years, and yet every week new actors fall in some anti-corruption operation, not just politicians. Instead of arrests being a deterrent, no one is afraid anymore

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Photo: FB
Photo: FB
Disclaimer: The translations are mostly done through AI translator and might not be 100% accurate.

The more scandals, the more corruption.

This is clearly evident after a new wave of arrests in anti-corruption operations that now include Croatian Motorways, the Faculty of Transport Sciences, HDZ directors, former members of parliament, professors...

Instead of the actions of USKOK and the DORH, and even the EU Public Prosecutor's Office, being aimed at deterring corrupt acts, it turns out that they are a kind of advertisement for corruption.

Because how else can we understand the information from the investigation that the actors in the latest scandal sold their reputations for dinner, plane tickets, kitchens, and car purchases in installments, just as doctors did a week ago for two thousand euros.

And this doesn't just apply to HDZ people.

Behind bars

We have professors, doctors, principals, experts of all kinds who have followed what has been happening in the fight against corruption for the past twenty, even thirty years, but that has not swayed them or deterred them from asking for gifts and selling favors, as if it would not one day land them behind bars or make the headlines.

The more people write about corruption, the more popular it becomes.

In other words, it's as if no one pays attention to this corruption anymore: from the actors to ordinary citizens.

And this corrupt fish doesn't just stink from the head, as it did in the era of Franjo Tuđman and Ivo Sanader, but has penetrated every pore, every bone, every scale, every fin. Not only is no one afraid of anti-corruption actions anymore, but corruption is becoming increasingly attractive to an ever wider circle of people.

It's like it's an advertisement, not a warning.

Everything passes.

They are not driven by luxury cars, watches, boats, hillside villas, or even boxes of hot dogs stuffed with money, but by dinners, plane tickets, and thin envelopes. For which they are willing to sell their service, reputation, professional career, and social status.

The arrests, among other things, send a message of zero tolerance for corruption. And what does that look like in practice? The party most deeply involved in corruption is still in power. People support corrupt politicians. Corruption is divided into "ours" which is forgiven and "theirs" which is criticized. Few people have been convicted of corruption, and if they have, no one knows about it anymore, nor does anyone care anymore.

Because a new affair is already around the corner.

They are going to the elections, to the Parliament.

Who still remembers Vili Beroš, the perpetrator of what is probably the most disgusting scandal involving the robbery of Croatian healthcare? He is now facing a parliamentary mandate.

Some of the actors in the scandals are running for election, some have made careers in business, some are politically active, few of them have lost their property, few have ended up on the streets. Some are suing the media for mental anguish. And Sanader traveled to Croatian national team matches.

While the dogs bark, corruption passes. So many are clearly starting to feel excluded. Why shouldn't they have their share of the pie? Preferably, in an expensive restaurant.

Corruption has been normalized, and the public has become numb to all these affairs, scandals, revelations, cases, arrests without a final outcome. It is as if psychological boundaries have been broken. Corruption is no longer a bogeyman. But an additional source of income.

I guess as a measure to combat inflation. Maybe even a form of social assistance.

This is what it looks like in a country where HDZ is leading the fight against corruption, HDZ is at the forefront of corruption, and HDZ is winning elections.

(24sata.hr)

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