Minister Šušnjar after Vučić's defeat: 'What else can I promise you?'
Croatian Minister of Economy Ante Šušnjar commented on the election defeat of Aleksandar Vučić in a post on the social network X, in which he ironically linked the election results in Serbia and Hungary to his earlier arguments with local politicians.
"First Orbán and Szijjártó. We argued a bit on X and then they lost the election. Now Vučić and Brnabić are gone. I am not claiming that there is a cause-and-effect relationship, but as a lawyer, I notice a pattern. What else can I promise you?" wrote Šušnjar.
The Croatian minister first referred to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó, with whom he entered into a public polemic on the social network X in February of this year. The conflict arose due to the interruption of Russian oil supplies to Hungary and Slovakia via the Druzhba pipeline. At the time, Szijjártó asked Croatia to enable the transport of Russian oil via the Adriatic Pipeline (JANAF), while Šušnjar stated that Croatia could help with supply and that JANAF had sufficient capacity.
A few weeks later, on April 12, Orbán's Fidesz lost the parliamentary elections in Hungary. The victory went to the Tisza party, led by Péter Magyar, ending Orbán's 16-year rule. Among the reasons for the dissatisfaction of Hungarian voters, Reuters highlighted economic stagnation, the country's international isolation, and the concentration of wealth in the hands of oligarchic circles. Šušnjar has now included the Serbian political leadership in his ironic post following the defeat of Vučić's list.
In the post, the minister also mentioned Ana Brnabić, the Speaker of the Serbian Parliament, with whom he had also exchanged messages on the social network X earlier this year. Their argument broke out after Brnabić accused Croatia of supporting student protests in Serbia. She told students dissatisfied with the situation in their own country to go to Croatia.
Šušnjar responded with an ironic message in which he referred to salaries and living conditions in Croatia, followed by an exchange of insults and political accusations. The ending of the minister's latest post, "What else can I promise you?", could be an allusion to the famous speech by the first Croatian president, Franjo Tuđman, on the Split Riva on August 26, 1995, after Operation Storm and the arrival of the Freedom Train.
Tuđman then asked the crowd: "What is left for me to promise you?" The crowd shouted "Vukovar!", and the president then spoke about the return of Vukovar, eastern Slavonia, and Baranja to Croatian rule.
