Croatian Analyst: Picula Made a Mistake, But There Is Nothing that Serbia Can Do

Tonino Picula (BETAPHOTO/European Parliament/Fred MARVAUX)

Zagreb political analyst and retired university professor Zarko Puhovski said on Aug. 14 that the European Parliament's rapporteur for Serbia Tonino Picula made a mistake by posting a photograph of himself in military uniform with a gun on the occasion the anniversary of operation "Storm"  but that "that episode shows that Serbia can't do anything."

"At very start of his mandate I defended Picula from nationalistic attacks from Serbia," Puhovski said in an interview with the NIN magazine adding that Picula "was and [probably] remains one of Croatia's most peaceable politicians."

"This, however, no matter how much it is geared toward the Croatian political market - is an utter stupidity, a mistake that makes Picula suspect with regard to the post that he has accepted. The important thing, however, is that this episode shows where Serbia is, it can do nothing directly, because those under observation are not in the position to decide on the observers," Puhovski said.

Asked about the position of the Serb minority in Croatia, he said that "for a long time relations between the two states were better then the attitude of the Croatian authorities with regard to the Serb minority."

"This is now changing, not so much because of a dramatic increase in the actual situation in which Croatia's largest minority is, which, it appears, is finally being perceived as too small and too weak to be a 'disruptive factor'," Puhovski said.