Croatia for Rent

Dubrovnik, Croatia

Hailed as Europe’s safest tourist spot, Croatia isn’t just a relocation dream for many White nationalists; it’s also a haven for hundreds of thousands of lowlife Whites in search of unbridled holiday fun—a seasoned spot for seasonal drug consumption and high-decibel rock ’n’ roll. Recently, it also served as a privileged port of call for the LGBTQ+ cruise ship The Scarlet Lady, which docked in Dubrovnik after being denied entry to Turkey and Egypt.

Famed for its multiple sun-drenched nudist beaches and an easygoing Catholic populace that couldn’t care less about anyone’s lifestyle, Croatia prides itself on being a rare European White enclave. It successfully draws hundreds of thousands of aged tourists away from the claustrophobic, migrant-plagued coastal cities of the UK, France and Spain. Yet it also evokes the dystopian world of eternal youth seen in the movie Logan’s Run, starkly contrasted by the sight of decrepit British vacationers baking in the heat—the kind of people waiting out the twilight of their lives on Spain’s Costa Brava.  Despite its natural splendor and a legal climate allowing all sorts of political and historical revisionism, Croatia evokes a darker capitalist underside reminiscent of The Lovin’ Spoonful’s 1960s hit, “Summer in the City”: “All around, people looking half-dead / Walking on the sidewalk, hotter than a match head.”

But the beauty of nature and free-speech latitude come at a price. According to the Ministry of the Interior, the number of legal non-European migrants in Croatia currently stands at 70,000–85,000, mostly construction and service-sector workers, coming mainly from Nepal, the Philippines, India, Egypt, Uzbekistan, and Bangladesh. In a country of less than 4 million citizens, this represents a staggering surge since its entry into the open-borders Schengen system. Most of these foreign non-White workers keep a low profile and, unlike rowdy testosterone-fueled North African youths in France or the UK, seem for the time being not to worry much about racial jokes made about them by local Croats. …

Balkan braggadocio

The obsession with making a quick buck has spiraled into a mania across Eastern Europe, and Croatia has dutifully followed suit. It is wrong to blame everything solely on migrants, as many young Croats simply refuse to work low-wage jobs. Ever since the breakup of communist Yugoslavia in 1991—which mainstream Croatian media still treats as the scapegoat for all the nation’s ills—a newborn capitalist Croatia has found itself in a different mess. How does one reconcile the petty graft and nepotism bleeding into every corner of society while loudly singing hymns to the glory of a free Croatia? The daily news of embezzlement scandals raises an awkward question: what exactly was the point of the military Operation Storm in August 1995 that launched the modern Croatian state into the world headlines? During the so-called Homeland War of 1991–1995, every inconvenient fact was brushed aside with the patriotic refrain that the real problems were the proverbial neighboring Serbs and the baggage of communism.

Today, however, the capitalist “free market” is showing a far more lethal face. The logic of imported capitalism dictates that the only way to get ahead is to outsmart and exploit one’s  neighbors—and, on top of that, rent out property to tourists at exorbitant rates. One frequently hears Croats mouthing hollow slogans about national heritage and sacred historical memory, yet even the loudest among them are all too eager to cash out and sell their piece of the Dalmatian coast. If one steps into any restaurant or coffee shop in the coastal cities of Zadar, Šibenik, or Dubrovnik, one will likely spot a Croatian flag or a portrait of nationalist heroes on the walls, framed by an inescapable crucifix above the bar. The Croat owner, however, has figured out that it’s far more profitable to pocket the earnings by hiring underpaid Filipino or Nepali women than by paying a fair wage to a local Croat nationalist. Lurking behind the counter are tiny Filipina women serving cocktails and espressos, their heads barely reaching the edge of the bar. There are also thousands of low-key Serbian service workers waiting on patrons, pretending to forget the recent past or lingering resentments between them and their Croat hosts. But money talks—especially given that wages in non-Schengen Serbia are lower than in Croatia. The raw deal of supply and demand makes both sides momentarily forget their cherished victimhood narratives. Serb service workers keep their mouths shut and bend over backward to be extra polite, knowing that their different accent could result in a dangerous brawl. Gone is the balkanesque braggadocio that once characterized their behavior in the former Yugoslavia…

The free-market dogma serves the lie that everyone has an equal start—which naturally encourages the average Croat Ivan to try making some easy money, too. After all, if Ivan Six-Pack next door is scheming, why shouldn’t Nikola do the same? If neighboring Nikola managed to put up a mansion overnight for free or score a nice BMW, why shouldn’t Ivan give it a try? The greed for profit is tearing Croatia apart far more successfully than bygone communist Yugoslavia ever did. Refrains of the common good and solidarity have become laughable fairy tales for naive Croats. And if half the country is involved in murky financial wheeling and dealing, and if that kind of shady hustle has turned into national folklore, why shouldn’t Ivan or Nikola join in?

The Capitalist Fraud

It is high time to drop the long-standing myth that liberal democracy is the gold standard of governance. Liberal methods of surveillance are far more effective than old communist ones. In France and Germany, the ruling class is working overtime to keep sovereignist parties—like France’s National Rally (RN) and Germany’s AfD—from coming anywhere near power. Liberal democracy, that is, capitalism, prefers not to use the crude force of communism; instead, it simply neutralizes opponents with shut-up labels such as “fascists,” “right-wing radicals,” “ustasha,” or “neo-Nazis.” Old-style communist censorship has been replaced by a smoother, far more effective brand of total liberal control combined with creeping self-censorship.

In the shadow of much-vaunted party pluralism, elections are just another Western-imported joke in Croatia, echoing an EU script where every politician is paid to play dumb. Voting parties in and out is merely a rerun of the old-fashioned parliamentary scam. The difference between the largest opposition party in Croatia—the so-called leftist SDP—and the ruling, so-called rightist HDZ comes down only to the color of their ties and the brand of their shoes. Of course, the EU and its Croatian proconsuls like to stage the occasional chase after small-time grifters—such as recently indicted figures in the Croatian Olympic Committee—so the illusion of the rule of law can be upheld. Meanwhile, real, legalized, large-scale misappropriation of government funds is neatly packaged in patriotic slogans, “strategic investments,” and a fake concern for the people. Croatia has already been largely sold off to foreigners—from the banks to the energy sector.

Capitalism, just like communism, brings out the worst in people. More than a century ago, numerous writers thoroughly analyzed the destructive nature of the liberal system. Servility toward the EU, nepotism, and general thievery mixed with an obsession for equality are not just a Croatian oddity; they prevail all over the liberal West. Before lambasting figures like New York’s mayor Mamdani, or Michigan senatorial hopeful El-Sayed, or the popular communist mayor Elke Kahr of Graz (Austria), one must face a haunting question: why are communist ideas, in all their various shapes and forms, making such a comeback? What has the right wing actually done to combat this successful egalitarian pathology of rebranded homo sovieticus?

After the catastrophe of 1945, the fear of being taken for a ride by the government became deeply ingrained not only among most Croats, but also across the increasingly balkanized USA and Europe. An opportunistic mentality—namely, being more papal than the pope—has traditionally shadowed Croatian history, from Croatian royal cavalrymen and their killing sprees in Protestant town of Magdeburg in 1631 during the Thirty Years’ War, through the disaster of Croatian Wehrmacht volunteer units at Stalingrad in 1943, all the way to today’s obedient Croatian EU yes-men. Any honorable and honest Croat who refuses to take part in this liberal-capitalist game of thrones is publicly laughed at as a man of low IQ. As the old Croat saying goes: “Ki je benast, taj je naš” (“Our dimwit belongs to us”).

No wonder the loudest voices against corruption in Croatia today can be mostly heard among the progeny of people who built their careers in communist Yugoslavia through plunder, mass killings, and the eviction of “class enemies.” That is why the call to fight systemic thievery in Croatia—as well as across the EU and the US—remains pure fantasy. Which EU or US politician would be crazy enough to cut off the branch the entire capitalist system including his monthly pay sits on? Fighting communism without uprooting its liberal roots is a nonstarter.

Once, the popular sign along the Croatian coast was a hand-lettered placard reading “Rooms for Rent.” Today, at the border crossings, the time has come for the real one: “Croatia for Rent.”