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EDIT: I don't know what exactly the EU can or should do. The issue I have is that none of the non-Croatian media or politicians are even talking about the erosion of democracy in a fellow EU member state just because the government doesn't cause any trouble outside its own borders.

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If you're not from Croatia, you've probably barely heard about our Wednesday elections, but for us they're seen as the most important elections in our history (the turnout rate was the highest since 1990, the year Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia) due to the rising authoritarianism of our current ruling HDZ party. The elections are a battle for our democracy and the battle is still ongoing. The reason you don't know about any of this is simple: our authoritarian government has a deal with other EU and NATO leaders which can be summed up as "we won't cause you any trouble and support all of your decisions, and you let us do whatever we want in Croatia".

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I won't go into too much detail because I could write for 5 days straight if I did, but some things need to be explained.

The ruling HDZ party was formed by the former Croatian communist party members (Savez Hrvatskih Komunista - SKH) when Croatia declared independence. They just switched their ideologies and became right-wing nationalists etc. because their only real ideology is having more power. They continued controlling all segments of society as people from Croatia know all too well. If you want a job in a public/government company/agency, if you want a medical specialization, if you want to be head of a university, the police force or a top judge, you will most likely need some sort of connection to HDZ. They currently have 200 000 members in country whose population is under 4 million people. For comparison: Germany's CDU has less than 400 000 members and more than 80 million people. This is a lot of people who may have direct benefit if their party stays in power, to the detriment of everyone else. Anyway, due to them leading Croatia during the war of independence, they were in a very powerful position because they had the opportunity to create a system where they could win the elections even without securing a majority of the vote (and no, we're not a federation like the US and the reasons are completely different and complicated). They also built a cult of personality around our wartime president and they got themselves a bunch of life-long supporters who see them as our saviors against Serbia and communism.

HDZ was already quite unpopular because they win elections without having the majority of the votes, and they're quite infamous for not respecting any laws, making people prove they've voted for them, driving old people in rural areas to the voting place so they can vote for them (all of which are illegal, but they can do whatever they want). Over time they've accumulated even more power, and during their last (or I should say current) term they passed a bunch of authoritarian laws limiting the freedom of the press and the freedom of speech, the most infamous of these laws being the so-called "Lex AP". During the election campaign they used the entire state apparatus to their advantage. They've used the police for their own political campaign multiple times, they used other government institutions, they held rallies the day before the election, they mobilized old people to vote for them in villages on election day by bringing them to vote while simultaneously making it as hard as possible for young people to vote (making students stand in a massive line at the only possible voting place for them in Zagreb, telling a lot of voters they can't find them on the voting list or that something's wrong with their ID etc. (some of these things are not proven to be done on purpose but they never mess something up when it benefits them)).

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The current president had zero political consistency throughout his career and he only cares about being in charge. He's also the former prime minister and due to us having a parliamentary system, he wants to become the prime minister again. He's possibly the most capable populist on the planet, he can always find something to say to put himself in the spotlight and increase his own popularity without significantly pissing off anyone. Whatever you believe in, he's got something you can agree with. Since everyone hates HDZ and he wants to be in the spotlight, he just opposes literally any decision HDZ does, putting himself at the center of attention and seeming like the main political figure fighting against the governing party most of us hate. Since HDZ is supported by the EU for agreeing with them on everything, this has led to his rethoric being eurosceptic. This is purely situational and has nothing to do with his actual opinions on anything as he had no problems collaborating with the EU during his term as PM and he even criticized Orban's migration policies etc.

If the EU was against HDZ, our president would support the EU, it's really that simple.

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The ruling party declared victory on election day without having a clear majority in the parlament. His party barely won a bit over 30% of the vote in Croatia even with all of the election irregularities and not respecting any laws during their campaign and the opposition being complete shit. ALL other parties ran on the promise of removing HDZ from power as everyone agrees on that being the priority for the country moving forward if we want to have a functioning democracy. The only party that is currently willing to betray their promise is, of course, our far right party and they're currently trying to find a way to blame someone else for the reason they were "forced" to form a coalition with the ruling HDZ party.

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After the first results of the election, the PM said how he's being congratulated in Brussels for his victory (without winning anything at the moment). Everyone is well aware of his close connections with the rest of the EU and NATO, and also how noone cares about what happens to us. The only news the media will cover are the president's controversial statements which make him sound like he's the real threat to our democracy without having additional context.

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We're all well aware that the only reason noone is criticizing HDZ for all of their authoritarianism is because they never use their veto in the EU or NATO. If HDZ did only 10% of what they did but had the foreign policy of Hungary, you would look at them in a similar way you look at Orban and his Fidesz party and our elections would be covered extensively by the media and would be shown as Croatia's battle for democracy.

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The EU's tacit support for our government sends a very clear message to the Croatian people: "we only care about your government going along with our decisions, but we couldn't care less about you or your democracy".

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If you think I'm just some pro-russian bot who loves our populist president (I really don't), ask yourself this:- Why is there a possibility of a coallition between parties from ALL sides of the political spectrum when they don't agree on virtually anything? Would that be possible in any situation where they're all not under threat from a single common enemy? This includes the extremely conservative far right, the populist anti-woke libertarian right, the social-democrat (but only in name) party, and the most pro LGBT, women's rights, etc. party, as well as a bunch of smaller parties.

- Why is the far right party the only party willing to form a coalition with our ruling party? What ideology is the most anti-democratic (and no, we don't have communists in government this time around)?

- Why did we have the highest turnout in history, when there are no significant differences between the largest two parties in terms of policy?

- Are there any other places where the supposedly authoritarian side (the opposition led by the president, as the media tries to portray them) is the one supported by a majority of the population, having more support among young people, women, college-educated, urban groups of people?

I feel like many of you in this sub may get similar thoughts on this. I'm a leftist and believe in the dream of united Europe, however I see one massive problem towards integration. European Union was founded on the French motto of Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité, but I feel many Europeans seem to have forgotten the last part.

In the last decades ^((maybe ignoring the most recent few years when far-right started gaining more prominence)) we've made massive strides towards emancipation of women, sexual minorities, different ethnic groups etc., however what the war in Ukraine has shown and what I see whenever I go on even more leftist-oriented subs like r/europe or r/germany is that many people refuse to help, refuse to stand up to tyranny, call for negotiations. Not to diminish the before mentioned accomplishments or personal hardships of affected groups, but most recent advancements have been made through democratic institutions and voting, not an armed struggle in the same sense that we've fought against fascism in WW2. Hyper individualism isn't just a problem with the far-right, I increasingly feel like we're guilty of it as well. Sometimes it is necessary we fight for other people's freedom, not just ours.

In a sense all the Vatniks and Russian bots talking about the war being our fault are right. We messed up, we consistently haven't done enough at an appropriate time. We haven't squeezed the bear by the balls hard enough in 2014, we worry about how delivering system X or weapon Y will cause escalation while the other side openly bombs cities with drones from Iran and shells from NK. We refuse to do enough, we run late on most of our promises and then we're surprised that Ukraine is losing. We're not being pulled into some random foreign war like Iraq or Afghan war, we're not invading anyone, we're not funding the Taliban, we're helping out a country that shares many of our core values and desperately needs help. Even ignoring all our basic self-interest in making Ukraine win, helping is basic human decency...

If you ask a random European leftist whether or not they'd defend their country in an attack, a large fraction will proclaim they would just emigrate, saying they're not willing to fight for corrupt politicians or lines on maps. What they forget is their neighbor. Everyone who avoids the call to arms makes sure that someone else is forced to accept it. Not everyone has privilege of being able to escape, be it money, family, age, health and so on. By escaping you're leaving the less fortunate to die or be oppressed which is absolutely antithetical to most forms of liberal leftism.

I feel the sense of absolute dread whenever I contemplate how would Germany or Spain respond if Estonia was attacked, knowing that my own country (Poland) is next on the list. Everyone who thinks Putin will not dare take another step, while refusing to defend their own countrymen, let alone an ally, is precisely the reason why he will take that step. Sometimes virtue needs to be written in blood and the highest virtue of all is to take a punch for your fellow man, but I think some of us have forgotten it.

Turning to you, fellow, more knowledgeable Eurofederalists, wondering which European party is pushing for further federalization the most. From our viewpoint, which one would be the best to vote for in the upcoming European elections, and why?

Obviously meaning the EU-level parties, not sparking a discussion on the local, national ones.

Thanks in advance for sharing your perspectives.

https://www.euractiv.com/section/economy-jobs/news/letta-to-call-for-us-ira-style-funding-pan-european-state-aid-contribution-scheme/

As the title says, I find the burgundy and gold design of most EU passports kind of ugly/drab. I think if we must have a common passport design, blue and gold/yellow would make more sense. That way, the flag of the EU could also be seamlessly integrated into the cover.

However, there is the alternative of having the passport designs completely unrestricted. I find passport designs like Kyrgyzstan, Switzerland, and Norway like eye candy, and obviously such designs aren’t really compatible with the current EU directive on passport design.

What are your thoughts?