Basking in the glow of a creditor settlement to save the biggest private company in the Balkans, Croatia’s governing elite, including the prime minister, filed into the National Library in Zagreb late last month for the launch of a book called ‘The Collapse of Crony Capitalism’.
Written by former economy minister Martina Dalic, the book tells the story of the government’s efforts, led by Dalic until her resignation in May, to stave off bankruptcy at Croatian food and retail conglomerate Agrokor.
Staggering under 7 billion euros in debt, or the equivalent of 15 per cent of Croatia’s economic output, Agrokor was taken under state-appointed management in early 2017 with a special law dubbed Lex Agrokor to avert collapse and the loss of more than 50,000 jobs across the Balkan region.
