Škoro TV

HTV's controversial documentary/talkshow strand Latinica has just provoked one of its strongest polemics yet with Monday's edition marking the sixth anniversary of the death of president Franjo Tudjman. Entitled Tudjman's Legacy, the highly critical documentary has provoked the director of HRT, Mirko Galić, to accuse the show's presenter Denis Latin of 'unprofessionalness, lack of balance, and disrespect for the fundamental obligations imposed by the law on balanced arguments and balanced attitudes'.

The edition has also been debated in the Croatian Parliament, where Novi list reports the most outspoken criticism has come from Pejo Trgovčević of the far-right HSP:

'What television were we watching last night, Croatian television or something else? Quo vadis, Croatia? For the first time, the late president Franjo Tudjman has been presented as one of the greatest criminals. As the man who provoked the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, rehabilitated the Ustaša regime and wanted to mix up the bones of Ustaše, Home Guardsmen and Partisans.'

Even if Tudjman loyalists would be satisfied with Galicć's head on a plate right now, one's still somewhat astounded by the completely unattributed claim in today's Slobodna Dalmacija that lined up as his replacement is... none other than the patriotic singer Miroslav Škoro.

Škoro became Thompson's sidekick in nationalist showbusiness when they collaborated three years ago on a remember-our-fallen-brothers track Reci, brate moj (Tell me, my brother), entered for the then-prestigious Melodije Hrvatskog Jadrana festival. Thompson returned the favour by joining in at the end of Škoro's song Sude mi (They're judging me), which concerns a Croatian 'knight' betrayed by his brothers and imprisoned in a far-off city. (How much might that song have been heard in the last few days? Yes.)

In an interview with Večernji list in June, Škoro set the song inside an extensive mythic-heroic matrix:

'With today's connotations, Sude mi is immediately about Norac and Gotovina, but for me it's also a song about the crucified Homeland, about Zrinski and Frankopan going to Wiener Neustadt to have their heads cut off, about Matija Gubec...'

Striking out on his own, Škoro notched up his biggest hit to date this summer with Svetinja (Sacred thing), released his seventh and highest-profile album, and embarked on his own large-scale promo tour. Here he is on stage holding what some might consider a compromising football scarf.

The sort of moonlighting where Severina stars in Krleža plays is one thing, but with Škoro already the president of the board of Croatia Records, it's hard to know where he'd find the time.