Motovun got its new municipal council yesterday evening. The councilors spent a bit more than an hour constituting the council. After swearing in and promising in public to serve all the citizens of the municipality to the best of their ability, they voted on several key council posts. There were about ten observers present, including a journalist from the local newspaper. Everything went splendidly. Although the proceedings were rather boring, there was much hope in the air. The key to the new era is the coalition between the Independents, Social Democrats, and Greens, which has a slight majority in the council over the Istrian Democratic Assembly.

For two previous mandates of four years each, the municipal council was dominated by the Istrian Democratic Assembly, to which the mayor belonged, as well. Whatever he wanted to do, the council would ratify without much ado. It became a voting machine. During yesterday’s proceedings, the new coalition demonstrated that such a voting machine could be used whenever needed. But all members of the coalition are ready to work with the mayor and all the other councilors for the benefit of the municipality. The voting machine will be used only when absolutely necessary.

Buoyed by the meeting yesterday evening, this morning I submitted my first letter to the new municipal council. I wished it successful work for the benefit of all, and then I proceeded to a rather personal matter. Namely, I pleaded with the council to withdraw the second suit for libel that I now face at the Municipal Court in Pazin. The first suit was submitted by the mayor of Motovun, while the second came from the municipality as a whole. Of course, it was rammed through by the mayor, and his voting machine responded just as he pleased. Both suits are to the shame of the Croatian judicial system, I explained in my letter. No court in a democratic society would accept a libel suit based on a claim that some government officials were in a conflict of interests. For me, at least, the fate of my plea will be an excellent indicator of what is to follow with the governance of Motovun in the next four years.

Addendum (September 17, 2009)

It took three full months for the new municipal council to consider my earnest plea. But my second suit for libel is still with me. Only three council members, all of them Social Democrats, voted to drop the suit. Given the coalition with the Greens, their vote did not surprise me. But the vote of the Independents, with whom there is yet another coalition in opposition to the Istrian Democratic Assembly, certainly did. Their council members argued that the suit had nothing to do with the new council, as though it came from the previous council rather than the municipality itself, which they now represent. As I said earlier, my plea is an excellent indicator of what is to follow with the governance of Motovun in the next four years. The council coalition appears to be heading for the rocks.