Well, it's vague at best. If, indeed, the case is that these institutions voluntarily did cancel some debt, first, they have abysmal PR teams, letting the PM ru

Well, it's vague at best. If, indeed, the case is that these institutions voluntarily did cancel some debt, first, they have abysmal PR teams, letting the PM run with the credit for it. Second, the headline is just wrong. "Croatia" didn't do anything, a number of creditors did. Third, it's unlikely that all poor debtors had all their debt to these creditors, and any debt to creditors not participating in the scheme would not have been cancelled. Either that, or the somewhat more plausible explanation, that the word "convinced" just doesn't quite describe the process that is taking place.