guardian.co.uk
The former Croatian prime minister leaves a mixed legacy, but ultimately his vanity and greed led him astray
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 14 December 2010 11.03 GMT
If you have never seen footage of the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu's last speech, you should. On a cold December morning in 1989, Ceausescu stood on the balcony of the central committee building and started to address the 100,000 people in the square below, brimming with flags and banners. At first, it's all business as usual: Ceausescu speaks, people applaud and chants repeat pre-prescribed slogans. Suddenly, there's a strange sound, an unusual, threatening noise, like a roar. And the noise grows stronger. An expression of utter amazement surfaces on Ceausescu's face as it dawns on him that the roar is directed at him.
The scene of Ceausescu's downfall lasts less than a minute. Former Croatian prime minister Ivo Sanader, arrested four days ago while on the run in Austria, took much longer to fall from power; about a year and half. And it isn't rule by dictatorship that connects him to Ceausescu, but a psychological phenomenon that has to do with arrogance of power. Sanader, too, believed that downfall could not happen to him. Him? The prime minister? Not only was he forced – under circumstances that remain obscure – to step down from power in July 2009, he was also deserted by his former brothers in arms, and is now even deprived of freedom. At least he isn't the first Croatian politician from his government to find himself in such a position; a few minor politicians from his government have already been imprisoned because of corruption.
For many years Sanader gave the impression that he knew exactly what he was doing. He took control of his Croatian Democratic party by pacifying its radical right wing – presumably not only with political promises. He then put on a pro-European mask and a friendly, civilised manner. In the meantime, he was buying people left and right, some with money, some with favours, until most of the important players were part of his network. The recent corruption investigations revealed that he was involved in at least two corruption scandals from which he is charged with "conspiring to commit crimes and abuse of office". The maximum punishment for this is 15 years in prison. Four more cases are being investigated.
While in power, Sanader felt increasingly safe. So safe that, at the moment when he was forced to step down as prime minister in the summer of 2009, he installed in his place his aide Jadranka Kosor, a person he was sure would be absolutely loyal to him. After all, it was he who had enabled her rise. And what did she do? At the first opportunity, Kosor gave her former boss the boot. Much like Sanader's other so-called friends, who kicked Sanader out of the party a year ago.
Ivo Sanader is an intelligent man. What, then, was his crucial mistake? He has one big drawback – he is vain. As he became more powerful, he also became more self-assured and, consequently, arrogant. As far as Sanader saw it, the change on the top of Croatia's political system was only a technical one: as everyone had a hand in the "business", he thought he could sleep peacefully. And for a time he did, knowing that his associates were held together by fear of each other. But he believed that he was still the one pulling the strings. That was a mistake.
His arrogance did not leave him, even at the moment when he heard that the state attorney was going to demand that parliament lift his immunity in a big sweep against corruption. Otherwise, why would he have remained in the country until the very last moment? He escaped Croatia only when he heard that the attorney's office had made the move to strip him of his immunity in order to arrest him.
And he escaped like a true amateur. Completely unprepared, without a plan of escape and without a plan B. War criminals such as Branimir Glavas could have given Sanader some advice; he has experience in fleeing the country. But unlike Glavas, Sanader was not a criminal, or so he maintained until a day before his own escape. However, that will be no longer for him to decide, but the Croatian courts.
Sanader leaves a mixed legacy. He steered Croatia towards the European Union, opened up the country and dreamed about being the leader who would take Croatia into full European integration. But he also left the country struggling with corruption that reached gigantic proportions and which his party, still in power for another year, will find extremely difficult to resolve. As it turns out, Sanader eventually sacrificed what he saw as his historical mission for his greed.
The scene of Ceausescu's downfall lasts less than a minute. Former Croatian prime minister Ivo Sanader, arrested four days ago while on the run in Austria, took much longer to fall from power; about a year and half. And it isn't rule by dictatorship that connects him to Ceausescu, but a psychological phenomenon that has to do with arrogance of power. Sanader, too, believed that downfall could not happen to him. Him? The prime minister? Not only was he forced – under circumstances that remain obscure – to step down from power in July 2009, he was also deserted by his former brothers in arms, and is now even deprived of freedom. At least he isn't the first Croatian politician from his government to find himself in such a position; a few minor politicians from his government have already been imprisoned because of corruption.
For many years Sanader gave the impression that he knew exactly what he was doing. He took control of his Croatian Democratic party by pacifying its radical right wing – presumably not only with political promises. He then put on a pro-European mask and a friendly, civilised manner. In the meantime, he was buying people left and right, some with money, some with favours, until most of the important players were part of his network. The recent corruption investigations revealed that he was involved in at least two corruption scandals from which he is charged with "conspiring to commit crimes and abuse of office". The maximum punishment for this is 15 years in prison. Four more cases are being investigated.
While in power, Sanader felt increasingly safe. So safe that, at the moment when he was forced to step down as prime minister in the summer of 2009, he installed in his place his aide Jadranka Kosor, a person he was sure would be absolutely loyal to him. After all, it was he who had enabled her rise. And what did she do? At the first opportunity, Kosor gave her former boss the boot. Much like Sanader's other so-called friends, who kicked Sanader out of the party a year ago.
Ivo Sanader is an intelligent man. What, then, was his crucial mistake? He has one big drawback – he is vain. As he became more powerful, he also became more self-assured and, consequently, arrogant. As far as Sanader saw it, the change on the top of Croatia's political system was only a technical one: as everyone had a hand in the "business", he thought he could sleep peacefully. And for a time he did, knowing that his associates were held together by fear of each other. But he believed that he was still the one pulling the strings. That was a mistake.
His arrogance did not leave him, even at the moment when he heard that the state attorney was going to demand that parliament lift his immunity in a big sweep against corruption. Otherwise, why would he have remained in the country until the very last moment? He escaped Croatia only when he heard that the attorney's office had made the move to strip him of his immunity in order to arrest him.
And he escaped like a true amateur. Completely unprepared, without a plan of escape and without a plan B. War criminals such as Branimir Glavas could have given Sanader some advice; he has experience in fleeing the country. But unlike Glavas, Sanader was not a criminal, or so he maintained until a day before his own escape. However, that will be no longer for him to decide, but the Croatian courts.
Sanader leaves a mixed legacy. He steered Croatia towards the European Union, opened up the country and dreamed about being the leader who would take Croatia into full European integration. But he also left the country struggling with corruption that reached gigantic proportions and which his party, still in power for another year, will find extremely difficult to resolve. As it turns out, Sanader eventually sacrificed what he saw as his historical mission for his greed.
read more: guardian.co.uk
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