National Heroes vs. EU Benfits: Croatia and the EU Conditionality

Abstract:

With the powerful attraction of membership and conditionality, the EU has been encouraging democratic processes in the Western Balkans, however not always as successfully as in Central-Eastern Europe. This article looks at how the condition of full cooperation with the ICTY influenced political discourses and public opinion in Croatia by challenging national identity which was partially built on the patriotic war and national heroes from the 1990s. The question is why domestic political elites still complied with the ICTY condition although it clashed with national identity. The main argument is that even if the so-called ‘ICTY condition’ is unpopular with the public because it challenges national identity, domestic political elites still complied with it because the benefits of the European integration process are greater than its costs.