SDP is as fair as Milan Bandic

Although the life standard of Zagreb citizens in the next three years will be 3 percent worse than in this year, according to the Mayor’s proposition of the city budget, the SDP representative Dan Spicer thinks that the certain amount of taxpayers’ money should be spend on the expansion of the Remetinec prison.

Spicer didn’t think about the construction works for real,  he only wanted to provoke Milan Bandic by saying Bandic should plan to make some room for himself in there. And Spicer is not the first SDP member who invokes major force to grab his former boss. Bandic even sued Jurica Meic when Meic asked him if he was afraid of God since he stole so much. Afraid of God or Mladen Bajic - it’s all the same. Neither Spicer nor Meic wish Bandic good. And Bandic used to call those two as his inheritors within SDP.

The doubts in Milan Bandic’s fairness aren’t so fresh. Those doubts have showed up in media from the time Bandic was elected for Zagreb mayor. But all that time SDP was most consistent in defending Bandic from those attacks. And Zagreb SDP members were leaders of the defendant’s team. In that kind of SDP Spicer and Meic weren’t the opposition. Only Boris Sprem out of the current SDP representatives could have made such statement. The future Parliamentary president and the current president of the City Assembly Boris Sprem opposed Bandic in the time when this trend wasn’t so popular in SDP. And he was all alone in his opposition among all Zagreb SDP members.

There was a ‘’stand’’ in SDP back then that the majority of crime charges against Bandic was a result of  HDZ endeavor to show how the politicians are all the same. Bandic was defended by identical rhetoric as Slavko Linic and Vojko Obersnel are defended by these days. So they have been defending Bandic for entire nine years, all together, except mentioned Boris Sprem.

Back in 2009, so not so long ago, Zoran Milanovic said that Milan Bandic was the best thing that SDP could offer to Zagreb. And Zagreb residents believed Milanovic so much on that statement that they gave Bandic more votes than him over the elections back then. Afterwards Bandic decided to leave SDP. No one forced him to do such thing or kick him out of the party. There wasn’t the disciplinary action initiated against him due to thievery, antidemocratic behavior, nepotism, or whatever SDP has attached on him. Even before the farewell letter physically arrived to the Ibler’s square, Bandic transformed from a best thing that SDP can offer to the Zagreb largest natural disaster. SDP transformed a ‘’best mayor’’ to the ‘’biggest thief’’ faster than DR. Jekyll transforms to Mr. Hyde.

But why? - Only because he left the party. And there is no bigger crime in Croatia than the crime of leaving the political party. Sanader became persona non grata in Croatia as soon as he resigned. He became the most hated person in the days when people discussed why he had left (not how much he had stolen). But we found out so many things about Sanader that we didn’t know before. And what have we found out about Milan Bandic that we didn’t know two years ago?

All the affairs and the crime charges which Milan Bandic drags from the times he was a president of Zagreb SDP branch and the member of SDP’s presidency. When SDP members directed a call to Mladen Bajic to finally initiate the investigation on Milan Bandic, they call for the State Attorney Office to investigate what Bandic had been doing while he was taking part in the authority with SDP. If the State Attorney Office finds or attaches something on Bandic, how SDP thinks to get away from the co-responsibility? Will they, as the HDZ members, excuse themselves as they didn’t know a thing and that Bandic had created a parallel system of command which had nothing to do with them? Those excuses didn’t work on HDZ so how they think they would work on them. HDZ has a better alibi though. Doctor Ivo was more protected by the media. And the media wrote about Bandic all kinds of stuff. And it will be difficult for SDP to pretend they didn’t know a thing. They haven’t even kept quiet as they always were defending him.

If Milan Bandic really is a thief, than the Zagreb SDP members are at least the crime assistants. So they should think twice next time when yelling ‘’Hold a thief’’. Because a ‘’thief’’ which they were hunting for was the one from their ranks. If he was stealing, he had stolen back then while he was the best thing SDP could offer to Zagreb.

Everything that Zagreb SDP members (especially Meic and Spicer) know today about Milan Bandic, they knew two years ago. Everything they know today about Milan Bandic, Zagreb SDP members knew each time when they shared an election list of candidates Bandic presided. And that wasn’t only once.

SDP knew nothing less about Milan Bandic than the party knows today or knew two years ago when they recommended him to the voters as the best thing SDP could offer to Zagreb. Their ex city representative Mirela Holy wanted to apologize to the citizens for that ‘’recommendation’’ She was left alone, and soon she became the former city representative. SDP thought that she had overreacted and that there was no need for the apology. So, SDP recommended to the citizens of Zagreb a man who as they believe, is a thief. And in the meantime they don’t feel any responsibility or guilt.

How is SDP  something different than HDZ then? Except winning the elections in four days so it’s not clever to resent them...