Ivan Jakovčić, the governor of Istria, is in the news today. He is advising investors not to be fooled by one of the biggest projects on the peninsula, which he has initiated himself, and which is currently seeking investors. As he argues, the government is doing its best to thwart business. A short while ago he had announced that he would retire from politics and go to business at the end of his mandate next year. To show that he means business, he has even started growing a beard.

Now, he was deeply involved in setting up the current Croatian government. On top of that, he has been the government in Istria ever since Croatian independence. In short, his advice to investors is contradictory to boot, as is his decision to join business as soon as possible in spite of its impediments on account of government’s misbehavior. Is he confused? Or is he only trying to confuse everyone around him? I would go for the latter explanation, for the former strikes me as hardly plausible.

In my mind, he is trying to confuse all those who have long suspected his attempts to bring politics and business under the same roof. Perilously close, that is. Paradoxically, this is the very essence of both politics and business in this country from its inception some twenty years ago till today. As well as in the region entrusted to Jakovčić himself. Next year’s accession to the European Union will make the confusion of the two a bit more difficult, if not also perilous in the long run. Time to jump out of politics, to be sure. And into business, its very heart.