Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader resigned over the weekend, shocking the Balkan country and the European Union. Since being elected in 2003, Sanader and his cronies have, according to Jeffrey Kuhner of the Washington Times, “Dismantled democratic institutions…controlled much of the media…intimidated or murdered opposition journalists…and turned Croatia into a gangster state.” Atlas’s friends at The Adriatic Institute, based in Rijeka, have been fundamental in exposing government corruption and campaigning for rule of law. Kuhner writes:
…Opposition journalists, editors and politicians have been killed, beaten or threatened. One of the most prominent is Natasha Srdoc, the co-founder and president of the Adriatic Institute for Public Policy, Croatia’s finest independent policy institute. She dared to criticize Mr. Sanader’s assault on the rule of law, his unexplained wealth and his failure to carry out real economic reforms. For this, Ms. Srdoc was subjected to threats and harassment from HDZ [Croatian Democratic Union party] officials, and the government ordered an audit seeking to find out the Adriatic Institute’s activities, members and sources of funding.
Despite the mysterious deaths of other opposition voices in Croatia, Srdoc (formally declared an “enemy of the state”) pressed on in 2009, writing and speaking about the regime’s penchant for money laundering, secret public-private contracts, embezzlement, and other kleptocratic tendencies.
Since September 2004, the Adriatic Institute published a plethora of articles and was regularly featured in Croatia’s broadcast media including a prime time television debate with the finance minister. The Adriatic Institute further spotlighted Croatia’s problems through international events and briefings for elected officials in Europe and the US. Natasha Srdoc and Adriatic co-founder, Joel Anand Samy, recently published a compelling commentary in The Wall Street Journal Europe that became the 3rd most e-mailed WSJ op-ed for the month of May. In April, BBC radio and BBC online featured their work. Persistently articulating the importance of the rule of law and economic freedom, the Institute’s relentless attacks on Ivo Sanader’s corrupt ways eventually led to his demise. This highly leveraged strategy augmented both external and internal pressures that directly contributed to Sanader’s resignation on July 1, 2009, perhaps sparking Eastern Europe’s new revolution.
In correspondence with Atlas, Anand Samy remarked, “We do appreciate [Atlas's] important partnership and leadership in advancing economic freedom in this post-communist and post-war region. We realize that Sanader’s exit from the government is just one small step – yet an important one; and, we have much work ahead in dismantling the communist and corrupt structures in Croatia. Atlas’ continued support in waging the war of ideas is much appreciated.”
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