4 February 2022 – Many words can be used to describe Croatian politics: controversial, sensitive, dull, exciting, but confusing stands out as the word that I think many of us would associate most strongly with the topic. A closer look into Croatian political parties. 

Political misperception represents a common challenge globally. In an age where misinformation campaigns are rampant, the task of discerning fact from fiction is becoming evermore arduous and personal. Moreover, for the diaspora, the Croatian political establishment can present as a bit of a Blackbox. However, our votes matter, as does our political engagement. To make an informed decision about who should receive our support in the Sabor, clear information about each party and its objectives must be available to public members. In hopes of providing some clarity, I have created a summary of some of Croatia's leading political parties, providing a brief description of each platform and prominent figures that you may recognize the next time you go to the polls.

Hrvatska Demokratska Zajednica

Hrvatska Demokratska Zajednica (HDZ), or the Croatian Democratic Union, is one of Croatia's two major political parties and is the party of current Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and former President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović. HDZ runs on a center-right platform, governing with an ideology of conservatism, Christian democracy, and pro-Europeanism. HDZ has been the leading government in Croatia for most of the period since independence. In coalition with several smaller parties, HDZ forms the current majority in the Sabor. The party has been in power since 2016 when it won on a policy platform that party members describe as being "devoid of extremes and populism." As the party leader, Plenković has kept mainly to this moto, leading Croatia towards further European integration without creating much significant scandal since he came to power approximately five years ago.

Socijaldemokratska partija Hrvatske

The Social Democratic Party (SDP) is the major center-left movement in Croatia, serving as the primary opposition to HDZ. The party's ideology is self-explanatory, but generally, the SDP aims to apply social democratic values to improve Croatian society, subscribing to liberal progressive and pro-European values. President Zoran Milanović is likely the party's most well-recognized member in contemporary politics, serving as the Prime Minister from 2011-2016. The current party leader is Peđa Grbin, a lawyer from the coastal town of Pula. With 14 seats in the Sabor, SDP forms the official opposition in a coalition with various other parties on the same political spectrum.

Domovinski Pokret

Domovinski Pokret (DP), or Homeland Movement in English, is a right-wing populist party founded by musician turned politician Miroslav Škoro. The party runs on a platform of conservatism, nationalism, and soft Euroscepticism. A newcomer to Croatian politics, the party was founded in 2020 by Škoro after he left HDZ to take a farther right-wing stance. Škoro's DP garnered 16 seats in the Sabor in the national election. However, the celebrity musician resigned from leadership in July of last year and has since been replaced by Ivan Penava as party president. Despite its novel status, it will be interesting to see how the DP performs going forward as the DP represents a growing populist trend in European politics.

Možemo!

Možemo! or "We Can!" in English is another political newcomer who debuted in the 2019 EU elections. The party subscribes to an ideology of left-wing green politics, Eco-socialism, and Progressivism, in many ways a counterbalance to the DP. Uniquely, there is no party president, instead opting for governance by collective leadership. Despite not winning any seats in the European parliament, Možemo! has been gaining ground at a pace that has turned heads amongst the Croatian liberal sphere, even attracting the support of American actor Jane Fonda. In the 2020 parliamentary election, Možemo! in coalition with other green-left parties, managed to attain 4 seats in the Sabor. However, their most impressive feat came in 2021 when the party managed to win 40% of the Zagreb local elections, allowing them to form a government within the city assembly.

Looking to the Future

While far from exhaustive, the list above provides a general idea of the political options available to voters in future elections. The beauty of democracy is that everyone gets a voice. In recent years, voter turnout has been low, standing at only 46.44% in Croatia's most recent parliamentary election. While there are likely many reasons for this mediocre figure, public disillusion with their political leaders cannot be ignored as a likely contributing factor. By outlining just a handful of the choices available to voters, I hope that I have demonstrated that Croatian politicians are as diverse as their electorate.

For more on politics in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

February the 4th, 2022 - The Osijek company Orqa has begun developing no less than a chip design ecosystem right here in Croatia. Namely, Orqa, Osijek's FERIT and Zagreb's FER signed an agreement on cooperation in the project of designing a specialised chip for unmanned systems.

Complex chip design such as this hasn't existed in the Republic of Croatia so far, and it is on the basis of an initiative through which the rapidly-growing Osijek company Orqa d.o.o. further seeks to advance first-person (FPV) and remote reality (RR) technologies.

The goal of the Memorandum of Understanding signed by Orqa, the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Computing and Information Technology in Osijek and Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing in Zagreb, is the joint work of experts, engineers and academia on research and development of technologies of strategic importance for digital and a more resilient European Union (EU).

As such, for the implementation of this initiative, the signatories of the Agreement will also promote a key strategic instrument for the implementation of the EU industrial strategy - Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEI).

“We intend to design a chip specialising in unmanned systems such as drones, vehicles or vessels, with the ability to upgrade to autonomous functionalities. This extremely complex project is the first project of this type in all of Croatia, we're among the first in the world, and currently there aren't enough engineering capacities for such a design.

Although this sort of staff is currently lacking here in Croatia, through this project we're trying to build capacities and train engineers in order to start the development of the chip design ecosystem in Croatia in accordance with global trends. Cooperation with faculties as staff generators plays a key role in this. Through this project, we intend to achieve a symbiosis of commercial needs on the one hand, and academic knowledge and research on the other. In addition to the aforementioned faculties, the support of the Ministry of Regional Development and EU funds is extremely important for us in order to pave the way for the further development of this attractive industry,'' said Srdjan Kovacevic, co-owner and CEO of the Osijek company Orqa. 

As a world leader in the development of video glasses for drone pilots and as a leading regional company in the drone industry, Orqa is rightly considered a leader in Croatian modern technology and innovation. This isn't a surprisie at all when one considers the research, development, and prototyping of devices in the field of first-person view (FPV) technology, remote reality (RR), video signal transmission and radio communication, and the production of electronic components and devices the company engages in - the most famous of which are video goggles for FPV drone pilots. Collaboration with STEM studios is a great opportunity both for young engineering hopefuls and for the entire technology sector. The signed Agreement is unique on the territory of the Republic of Croatia, and with it the City of Osijek and Osijek-Baranja County will be more strongly positioned in the demanding IT world.

"This agreement will further strengthen the cooperation between the two leading Croatian faculties in the field of chip design, to which the Osijek company Orqa is adding additional value. Here in Croatia, the development of the semiconductor industry is lagging behind other branches of electrical engineering, and the planned scientific research activities in cooperation with the economy will represent a significant step towards the development of microelectronics in this country. The implementation of scientific research will ensure the transfer of the latest knowledge in the economy, but also in study programmes, which will provide domestic students with additional competencies necessary for the labour market in this area,'' said Tomislav Matic, the Dean of FERIT.

In addition to FERIT, the great potential of the Osijek company Orqa was also recognised by the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing from Zagreb, which has long been positioned as one of the leading Croatian educational institutions in the STEM field.

"FER is committed to an economy based on knowledge, innovation and openness to global talent. The strength of any economy lies in the high-tech sector whose progress and competitiveness is impossible without knowledge and scientific research where the academic community plays an extremely important role. This agreement created the basis for the further development of Croatian competencies in the field of chip design and verification. The agreement is also key to connecting the Croatian academic community and the Croatian economy with major European players in the semiconductor industry and ultimately creating a consortium to apply under the Important Common European Interest (VPZEI) mechanism,'' said Gordan Gledec, FER's Dean.

For more, check out Made in Croatia.

ZAGREB, 4 Feb 2022 - Workers Front (RF) MP Katarina Peović said on Friday that she had put forward to the parliament a conclusion and regulations with a set of measures asking that citizens' income threshold be taken into account when allocating vouchers for energy products and their value be raised from HRK 200 to 400.

Peović said the proposed measures should be discussed by the parliament urgently as they were related to current energy price hikes and her party considered them very important "class measures."

"We believe inflation is a class issue because the rising prices will not affect everyone in the same way, which is why the burden of the crisis should be distributed justly," she said.

Peović said that energy vouchers were defined in a such a way that only users with minimum allowances and persons with disabilities registered with social welfare centres received them, with their income threshold having been set at HRK 800 (€106).

Peović noted that electricity vouchers are used by more than 60,000 people while there are more than 600,000 pensioners whose income is below the poverty threshold, which is why her party has proposed that in the allocation of the guaranteed energy voucher one should take into account the fact that the income threshold is set at 60% of the national average, amounting to HRK 5,710 for a family of four and around HRK 2,700 for single-member households.

"We believe that everyone with income below that amount... should be entitled to energy vouchers, which should be increased from the current amount of HRK 200 to 400. Also, in addition to electricity vouchers, one should also introduce vouchers for heating and for natural gas, which we believe should have a lower, 13% VAT rate, just as electricity," she said.

Peović said that public services such as the HEP power provider, too, should help by giving up a part of their profits, which in 2021 for HEP amounted to HRK 1.4 billion so as to enable the subisidising of utility bills.

ZAGREB, 4 Feb 2022 - Independent MP Hrvoje Zekanović was reserved in his comments on media reports on Friday that he was planning on forming his own political group in the Croatian parliament. 

The group would include independent MP Marijana Petir and Goran Dodig of the Croatian Christian Democratic Party (HDS) and would support the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ)-led majority in Parliament.

"It's much easier to work through a group and there are greater possibilities for debate," Zekanović told reporters.

Zekanović had been a member of the Croatian Sovereignists group until December last year when he was expelled for criticising people who refuse to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

"I don't see anything sensational in the information that someone is looking for a parliamentary group," he said. He would not say whether it was true that he would like to see Petir and Dodig in his group and whether he had discussed the matter with them.

"I'm not going to discuss this," Petir briefly told the press. She, like Dodig, was elected on the HDZ slate and is a member of the HDZ group.

Dodig confirmed he had spoken with Zekanović about forming a political group and declined his proposal. When asked why, he said he had his own reasons, which he would not discuss.

Given that Zekanović and Karolina Vidović Krišto are the only MPs who currently do not belong to any political group in Parliament, reporters asked her if Zekanović had called her. "No one has called me," she replied briefly.

Stjepan Ćuraj, leader of the Croatian People's Party (HNS), a junior partner in the HDZ-led coalition, said he did not see any problem with his party working together with Zekanović and "supporting the same things."

"We can't say we agree with him politically and ideologically, but if we can agree on individual things, I don't see a problem for us to support the same things," he said.

Ćuraj would not speculate on whether the HDZ would admit Zekanović to their group. "You should ask the HDZ. I don't have a problem with that if he supports the same views as we do."

ZAGREB, 4 Feb 2022 - Croatian lawmakers on Friday welcomed amendments to the Cadastral Survey and Cadastre Act which will relieve the burden on the business sector and ensure a modern and efficient land administration.

They were particularly pleased with the fact that the new system will shorten the time for cadastral surveys of municipalities from six and a half years to about two years.

Organising the cadastre is a precondition for cities to develop and, shortening processing time is very important, said MP Anamarija Blažević (HDZ).

Predrag Štromar (HNS, HSU and independent MPs group) underscored that unorganised land registers are an obstacle to investments.

"The law is a step forward," agreed Urša Raukar Gamulin (We Can!).

However, the law can only produce results if the Land Registers Act is also amended, she said.

HDZ whip Branko Bačić said that of the 3,360 cadastre municipalities in Croatia about 15% or 414 are in the process of new measurements and about 200 have already completed them.

We expect about 9.7% of Croatian territory to be measured in the next 10 years, which will be identified as building lots and encompass 6.5 million cadastre cells, which is 42% of all cadastre cells in the country, said Bačić.

Lawmakers also welcomed the abolishment of the majority of fees for data use.

The law foresees abolishing fees when taking out extracts, certificates and photocopies of data from state land survey documents, real estate cadastres and building registers and when using data via network services, which will leave the state budget without about HRK 9.5 million a year.

That is pittance compared to the savings to be made by citizens who so far have had a hard time trying to set their real estate documents in order, said Barbara Antolić Vupora (SDP).

The State-Secretary in the Ministry of Physical Planning, Dunja Magaš, said the law would create a joint computer framework for land registers and the cadastre and in that way reduce the number of procedures and processing time.

ZAGREB, 4 Feb 2022 - Finance Minister Zdravko Marić said on Friday that tax policy would be part of a comprehensive package of measures to cushion the impact of increased energy prices.

"It would be great if the impact of price increases could be alleviated by tax policy alone, but that is not possible. Tax policy will certainly make its contribution," Marić told the press after a meeting of the Council for the Adoption of Euro as legal tender in Croatia.

He did not specify how much VAT on gas and electricity would be reduced by. He said that the government was considering a set of measures to help households and business because of a certain rise in gas and electricity prices as of 1 April.

As for a possible reduction of excise taxes, Marić said that HRK 70 million from excise taxes on gas and electricity was paid into the state budget annually, which gives room for cuts.

ZAGREB, 4 Feb 2022 - Croatia has registered 11,980 new coronavirus cases and 46 deaths in the last 24 hours, with the total death toll since the start of the pandemic in the country crossing the threshold of 14,000, the country's COVID crisis management team reported on Friday.

Of the 11,980 new cases, 8,094 were confirmed by PCR tests and 3,886 by rapid antigen tests. Compared with last Friday, the number of new infections dropped by more than 3,500.

According to the data provided by the national coronavirus response team, 2,126 infected persons are currently being treated in hospitals and 185 of them are placed on ventilators.

With the 46 deaths registered in the last 24 hours, the total coronavirus death toll has climbed to 14,035. Nearly 4,000 people have died since 17 November.

The number of active cases stands at 57,686 and 27,656 people are self-isolating.

Since 25 February 2020, when the first case was confirmed in Croatia, 971,464 people have been registered as having contracted the novel virus after 4,301,921 tests carried out.

As of Thursday, 56.60 per cent of the total population, or 67.35 per cent of the adult population, received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while 64.96 per cent received two doses.

February 4, 2022 - Through their official social media accounts, both the Prime Minister of the Republic of Croatia and the Croatian Government shared the winning motifs for the 2 and 1 Croatian euro coin, and the 50, 20, 10, 5, 2, and 1 cent coins, all of which will enter in circulation next year.

In recent years, the conversation around Croatia's accession to the eurozone has been increasing significantly. Since joining the European Union in mid-2013, the idea of carrying out a transition from the kuna to the euro has gone from being a distant scenario to near reality. It is no secret that the Croatian government's position on such change was favorable and that, eventually, it was simply a matter of defining how and when.

Precisely, as of today, the answers to both questions are already known, as the Croatian Government, its Ministry of Finance, and the Croatian National Bank (HNB) are working on the final details. The Croatian Kuna will cease to be the official currency, and the Euro will replace it in 2023. From September 5th, prices will be displayed in both Kuna and Euros, so that both locals and foreigners get used to the idea and become familiar with the new currency. Likewise, the first two months of 2023 will serve to withdraw the Kuna from circulation. As the Governor of the HNB Boris Vujčić reported shortly ago, citizens will have the possibility of paying with kunas, but only as a way to collect those coins for their subsequent storage.

Now that the idea of the euro as the official currency in Croatia is getting closer and closer to reality, many questions have arisen from both financial authorities, companies, and even Croatian citizens themselves. The positions are diverse: from rejecting the Euro in order to defend a Croatian symbol such as the Kuna, to wondering what the economic consequences will really be. The rejection of a large sector of the population was expressed through a referendum that was recently held throughout the country. The objective of the referendum was to postpone Croatia's access to the eurozone because, it should be remembered, by being a member of the European Union, Croatia cannot bail out of using the Euro as currency, but it could keep an indefinite period of transition.

The government responded by guaranteeing that not only will the transition from one currency to another take place smoothly, but that the long-term benefits will allow Croatia to reach economic standards that allow it to equalize its status with other European Union countries. Minister Zdravko Marić revealed that the Ministry of Finance will make sure to monitor that prices are set correctly, and does not rule out the existence of sanctions for those who increase them unsustainably. For its part, the Croatian National Bank promised to effectively control the inflation rates that may be generated as a result of this currency change.

Today's session of the National Council for the Introduction of the Euro as the Official Currency in Croatia. (Photo: Goran Stanzl/PIXSELL)

Most likely, doubts will be resolved along the way, since it seems that the decision has already been made and there is no going back. Following an official Croatian government meeting earlier today, the Government of the Republic of Croatia shared the official winner designs of the Croatian Euro coin, and all the details about each design, on their social media accounts. You can watch the complete session here. Each coin was accompanied by a video and information about its designers. The Government shared the following on their Instagram account:

''At today's session of the National Council for the Introduction of the Euro as the Official Currency in Croatia, the design solutions of the Croatian side of the euro and cent coins were presented. A total of 1,299 proposals were submitted to the open competition, and the commission in charge of selecting the most successful solutions did not know who the authors were, but evaluated and ranked each proposal only on the basis of the proposed design.

The first-ranked proposals were officially approved by European Council on January 28 this year. We also thank and congratulate the authors of the selected motifs! These are:

• Ivan Šivak - author of the conceptual design "Geographic Map of Croatia" for a 2 euro coin

Najuspješniji dizajn za motiv „Geografska karta Hrvatske" - kovanica 2 € pic.twitter.com/XSxLU3OTDI

— Vlada Republike Hrvatske (@VladaRH) February 4, 2022

The author of the 2 euro coin motif, "Geographical Map of Croatia", is Ivan Šivak, born in 1985 in Zagreb. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in 2011 at the Department of Animated Film and New Media. Since 2011 he has been a member of the Croatian Society of Fine Artists. He lives and works in Samobor.

• Stjepan Pranjković - author of the conceptual design "Kuna" for a 1 euro coin

Najuspješniji dizajn za motiv „Kuna” - kovanica 1 € pic.twitter.com/CJwzWMcIqR

— Vlada Republike Hrvatske (@VladaRH) February 4, 2022

The author of the 1 euro coin motif, ''Kuna'', is Stjepan Pranjković, born in 1995 in Ostfildern, Germany. At the Academy of Applied Arts in Rijeka, majoring in Applied Arts, module painting, he obtained the title of Master of Applied Arts in 2020. He lives in Rijeka.

• Ivan Domagoj Račić - author of the conceptual design "Nikola Tesla" for 50, 20 and 10 cent coins

Najuspješniji dizajn za motiv „Nikola Tesla” - kovanice 50, 20 i 10 centi pic.twitter.com/sGfVnrTaCX

— Vlada Republike Hrvatske (@VladaRH) February 4, 2022

The author of the 50, 20, and 10 cent coin motif, ''Nikola Tesla, is Ivan Domagoj Račić, born in 1999 in Zagreb. Today he is a full-time third-year aeronautics student at the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences in Zagreb. His interest in graphic design began in high school, when he began to study independently.

• Maja Škripelj - author of the conceptual design "Glagolitic" for coins of 5, 2 and 1 cent

Najuspješniji dizajn za motiv „Glagoljica” - kovanice 5, 2 i 1 cent pic.twitter.com/kh1IYEzSXV

— Vlada Republike Hrvatske (@VladaRH) February 4, 2022

The author of the 5, 2 and 1 cent coin motif, ''Glagolitic'', is Maja Škripelj, born in 1988 in Zagreb. She graduated from the Faculty of Architecture in Zagreb with a master's degree in engineering and architecture in February 2014. From graduation until July 2020, she worked in the architectural office, and now has her own business.

The designers behind the winning motifs for the Croatian euro coin: Ivan Šivak, Ivan Domagoj Račić, Stjepan Pranjković, and Maja Škripelj. (Photo: Goran Stanzl/PIXSELL)

After presenting the winners and their designs, the Croatian Government continued: 

''In addition to the mentioned motifs, the Council of the European Union also approved another, additional motif, ie the text, which is an inscription that each country can choose and engrave on the 2 euro coin, which is the largest.

On the Croatian 2 euro coin, in addition to the Croatian chessboard, as an element of the Croatian coat of arms, and a map of the Republic of Croatia, Gundulić's verse "O LIJEPA O DRAGA O SLATKA SLOBODO" will be engraved on the rim.

As is well known, this is one of the most famous and beautiful verses from the Anthem of Freedom, which is an integral part of the pastoral "Dubravka" from the 17th century by Ivan Gundulić. The Republic of Croatia, as a symbol of Croatian statehood and independence, should also have a verse from the Anthem of Freedom, which best symbolizes the millennial aspiration for freedom of the Croatian people''.

Below we show you each Croatian euro coin in detail:

The Croatian Euro coin designed by Ivan Šivak features the geographical map of Croatia and due to its size also features the verse: ''O LIJEPA O DRAGA O SLATKA SLOBODO'' engraved on the edge.

The Croatian Euro coin designed by Stjepan Pranjković features the Kuna, Croatia's symbolic animal.

The Croatian Euro coin designed by Ivan Domagoj Račić features Nikola Tesla, the world-famous inventor and engineer born in Smiljan.

The Croatian Euro coin designed by Maja Škripelj features the Glagolitic alphabet, the oldest Slavic alphabet, from Croatia. The two Glagolitic letters chosen will form the Croatian ISO: HR.

 For more, check out our politics section.