Croatia Experts Oppose Prioritising Jobs for Soldiers

Experts have given the thumbs-down to a call by Josip Djakic, an MP from the ruling Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, for volunteers in the military to enjoy an advantage in getting jobs in the public service.

Djakic, also president of the Association of Croatian Military Handicapped of the Homeland War, on Thursday proposed the idea as a legal amendment.

However, Tihomir Cipek, a professor at the Zagreb's Faculty of Political Sciences, told BIRN that giving servicemen and women priority in jobs reflected an unhealthy trend towards "a sort of a militarisation of society".

"I don't know any example where those people have such privileges," in a democratic state, he said.

"A principle like this would breach a basic principle of every democracy that all citizens are the same before the law and are employed according to their qualifications," he added.

Cipek accused right-wing politicians of developing a discourse centred on "war, the military and security threats", to benefit them politically.

After Djakic voiced his idea, the opposition centre-left Social Democratic Party, SDP, wrote on Twitter on Thursday that people with the best grades should be given most advantage in employment in public service. Candidates for jobs should rewarded "for knowledge, not for weapons", the SDP wrote.

"What Djakic says doesn't make much sense. Instead of creating a society where boys and girls with good grades get a job, some would like to create a new military caste in a civic society," SDP MP Franko Vidovic, a 1990s war veteran, told the SibenikIn news site on Thursday.

The opposition centre-left Croatian People's Party, HNS, had a similarly negative reaction on Thursday.

"My proposal: whoever serves in the military should get a...