Milan Bandić, the mayor of Zagreb, is in jail together with a score of his closest affiliates. The raid took place yesterday evening. There is much speculation in the media, but there is little that makes much sense at this stage. Thus I am of two minds about the arrest. On the one hand, Bandić has been assiduous in keeping the Croatian capital in good order. Parking, street cleaning, garbage collection, and the like, are superb. On the other, Croatian politics is such that it is hard to imagine any politician entirely unblemished, which makes me happy whenever anyone from on high ends up behind bars. In my estimation, at least eighty percent of politicians in this country should be arrested on suspicion of corruption and organized crime. Most of them would remain in jail, I am pretty sure. In short, Bandić’s arrest makes me both happy and sad. Zagreb will become a mess of a city in a short while. Come to think of it, it would only join the rest of Croatia in its plight. The way things are at present, the city looks a bit too prim for its place in the world. Croatia is a cesspool, and its capital had better show it at first sight. In the last analysis, Bandić was a makeup artist at best.