May 31st, 2021 - Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) leader and Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Sunday evening that his party was the absolute winner of the local elections after the outcome of both rounds of voting showed that the HDZ won in 15 out of the 20 counties and in three out of the six biggest cities.

Addressing the press in the HDZ campaign headquarters after the second round of the elections on Sunday evening, Plenković said that the unanimous opinion of the HDZ leadership was that "the HDZ is the absolute, colossal winner of these local elections."

"We won 15 out of the 20 Croatian counties," he said, congratulating all the candidates who won the confidence of the electorate for their four-year terms as mayors, county prefects, or city and municipal councilors, and he also thanked voters for having gone to the polls.

Plenković said that the policy of gradual strengthening of the party in the west of Croatia yielded results.

After 20 years, Varaždin County and Bjelovar-Bilogora County have prefects from the HDZ, and the HDZ again has its prefect in Lika-Senj County, he said.

He added that the party would analyze why the incumbent prefect of Šibenik-Knin County, a member of the HDZ, was unseated.

Of the six biggest cities, the HDZ won the local elections in three: Osijek, Zadar, and Velika Gorica. Unfortunately, we did not win in Split. However, we won in Osijek for the first time since establishing our democracy, Plenković said.

Concerning recent developments in Split, he said that the elections had been smeared because the elected deputy mayor had publicly shown his antisemitism.

"This is a disgrace for him and Split. I expect the new mayor (Ivica Puljak of the Centre party) to distance himself clearly from him and the deputy to resign. It is unacceptable that the second biggest city in Croatia has such a man as the deputy mayor," Plenković said.

HDZ wins elections in 45% of municipalities, 45% of cities, and 75% of counties

As far as other cities and municipalities are concerned, the HDZ's performance in the local elections in at a similar level as four years before, according to Plenković.

The HDZ is the winner in 45% of municipalities, 45% of cities, and 75% of counties, he explained.

"We have won excellent, majority support of the electorate in the fifth year of this government's term," he said, promising cooperation with all the elected heads and councilors in local authorities.

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

May 31, 2021 - Aaron Antwine of Hurricane Hostel in Split on the realities of opening a business as a foreigner in Croatia. 

To be upfront, if I had known that the combination of Covid and the Croatian government would screw my wife and me over so hard, I would have moved to any other country. 

My wife and I opened our hostel at the start of March 2020. A few weeks after opening, we closed our doors due to quarantine. Officially, accommodations were not required to close, but with so little information about Covid and a terrible amount of fear, we thought it would be the socially-responsible decision to close. Maintaining two meters of space in a dorm setting is next to impossible, and there were no tourists to be had anyway. We remained closed through all of April and reopened on May 18th. 

We filed for aid through HZZ during those first few months of Covid, and we did receive salary support for three months. Once the season became more active, filing for aid was much more difficult, and we were denied. Business was not that bad for a few months, and we were optimistic for the future for a time, but that all changed once we reached September. 

Small caveat. I am a U.S. citizen, and to maintain my own residence permit, I must employ three full-time Croatians, which we started in February 2020. Once the season started to slow, we requested salary support again to keep them employed. We were denied initially. Then we filed an appeal pointing out that our staff will be terminated if we do not get any help, and we were denied again. Due to no aid, the threat of a second wave, and greatly diminished sales, we were forced to terminate the staff in September. 

At this point, I was working by myself. My wife and I were hoping we could make enough money each month to cover our operating costs. I do not even pay my own salary. I pay the taxes and contributions for myself.  Every kuna I would pay myself, I put right back into the company anyway. We were trying to survive, and I was doing everything I could. Basically, to survive the winter months, my wife and I tapped into a lot of our resources so we could stay afloat. 

A new ordinance closed almost every business on November 27th, 2020. It did not exactly state that hostels were included as the wording was ambiguous and vague. Hostel owners across Croatia were questioning our lawyers and accountants to verify if we were included. Eventually, we decided that we could stay open. With so much uncertainty, it was too risky to close and have no income whatsoever. Several requests were sent to government offices in Zagreb to get clarification, and no official answer or response was ever given. We thought we were ok. 

January 23, 2021, an inspector entered our hostel and, after looking around for 10 seconds, informed me that our hostel needed to kick out all the guests and close our doors immediately. Their interpretation of the ordinance is that all hostels in the country needed to close. No one in the hostel owners’ group in Split was aware of this. Not one hostel owner in the country knew this was a thing. We asked repeatedly. My attorney and I asked several other government offices, and not one office knew what was going on. The only office in the entirety of the Croatian government that said hostels were to close was the inspector’s office here in Split. My company and I were both fined, and we were forced to close immediately. We lost what small income we were making from January, and we had to remain closed all of February as well. 

Here is where it gets fun. We were the only hostel this happened to. According to Hostelworld and Booking.com, there were around 100 hostels open across Croatia during the winter months. At least 10 of them here in Split. Not one of them was asked to close or received any punishment for being open. We told the hostel owners about being closed, and some responded by closing their own properties until March 1st. None of us could afford fines, and it was safer to close. The other hostels in Zagreb and throughout the country were taking in guests with no problem. Hostels all over were still taking in digital nomads, while some sold “reservations” as a cover charge to go in and party. 

My attorney and I planned on taking the fines to court to contest them. We were going to present information from several other offices, discussing the lack of clarity in the November decision and that hostels elsewhere were still open. Instead, we were hit with a larger fine for wasting the time of the court. I have discussed legal action for discrimination or something to that effect, but legal battles cost money I don’t have. 

Hostel owners and I here in Split deduced that we were now eligible for receiving some sort of support. It was determined that since our hostel was open in January, our business was not eligible to receive any aid, which was an understandable reason. It sucked, but we understood. We then asked for support for February during the month that we were explicitly closed by the government, and we were denied again. I am still not even sure why at this point. 

During the first three months of 2021, I worked on renewing my residence permit. Obviously, I could not maintain the requirement of three full-time Croatians. As part of our re-application process, MUP was kind enough to give me some leniency and work the process another way to ensure I could get a permit and stay open. We caught at least one break, and I am thankful for their help. Sadly, we learned something that nearly broke me almost immediately.  

A new law was passed for foreign business owners in January. The employees I am required to have must be paid the median wage of all employees in the entire country. So instead of paying a net of 3.400,00 for a full-time minimum wage receptionist position, we were now required to pay over 6.700 kuna. In bruto, that is over 9.300,00 kuna per employee. 

I requested MUP asking for a better clarification on the salary law to see if it meant median wage for the receptionist job position. According to the website MojaPlaca, the top salary for any receptionist in the country is around 6.800 kuna. MUP stuck by the law, essentially making our three staff members one of the highest-paid reception staff in Croatia…. for a little 27 bed backpackers’ hostel.

The hostel reopened on March 1st. We made a few thousand kuna total for the entire month, so my wife and I had to dip into even more savings to help cover our costs again. As part of my residence permit process, we set up full-time contracts with three employees that would start working on April 1st. We were still optimistic that sales would increase, and we could get at least enough money to cover most of the bills. Also, we planned to ask for salary support from HZZ to help cover our costs. If we can get salary support, then that would help us cover our largest expense until we can get enough guests. Wrong again.

We filed our requests for aid during this latest March-April window. As our company is relatively new, instead of comparing our sales numbers to 2019, they allowed us to use our first full month of sales in 2020 to use as the basis of the 40% decrease in sales. Our first full month of being “open,” according to HZZ, was April 2020, the month we were closed. Hard to make 40% less than zero. We were denied aid again. I voiced my concerns with my accountants, and they were able to help me produce another complaint. We asked for a different method we could use to show our decrease in sales and our dire need for any type of support. Clearly stating that if we don’t receive some sort of aid, our employees will be terminated, and our company will have to close. I received the decision from HZZ a few days ago, and despite our plea, we were denied again.

The highest-paid receptionists in the country, continuously denied aid from HZZ, closed, and fined by the government. We cannot win. I concede that some events were unfortunately timed, but the rest is going to destroy us. My wife and I will only be able to hold this business open for a short time, and if we do not get any aid or a massive influx of tourists, we are doomed to close later this summer, if not sooner. 

For anyone who might question how our business performs, we have been immensely successful by every metric we can track. According to Booking.com, out of the hundreds of accommodations in Split, from hotels, apartments, guesthouses, and other hostels, we are ranked 19th in guest nights booked over the last 3 months. We are working as hard as we can for every guest we can get, and we are still getting destroyed by a Covid economy and a government that not only refuses us aid but punishes us as well.   

Fundraiser by Aaron Antwine : Help Aaron and Ashley keep their hostel open (gofundme.com)

Do you want to share your experience of opening a business as a foreigner in Croatia? Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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

May 31, 2021 - The inaugural Dubrovnik Digital Nomad-in-Residence (DNIR) program ended with a commitment from Dubrovnik's mayor to implement some of the recommendations. TCN caught up with some of the resident nomads prior to their departure for exit interviews (with thanks to 45 Degrees Sailing for the video) 

It was the first of its kind in the world. Bring in ten digital nomads with different skills, backgrounds and lifestyles from all over the world. Give them free accommodation for 4 weeks, as well as a social and tour program and attendance at some design thinking workshops. And then work with the local community, city, tourist board and program coordinators to co-create a strategy for Dubrovnik to meet the needs of digital nomads who are taking an ever-increasing interest in spending time in the safe, authentic lifestyle destination that is Croatia. 

As a co-organiser of  DNIR, along with Saltwater Nomads, the City of Dubrovnik, and the Dubrovnik Tourist Board (the latter funded the project), I can honestly say that I have never been involved in such a thought-provoking project, or hung out with a group of strangers initially, who gelled to form lifelong friendships, as well as a superb vision for the future of Dubrovnik. 

Over the next few weeks, we will be exploring the DNIR findings in more detail, having made a start with Beyond the Walls: 4 Weeks in Dubrovnik Not Enough, Say DNIR Digital Nomads.

I caught up with several of them on their last evening to get their overall impressions of the program.

As you can see, it was a fairly relaxed setting for the interviews, with Dutchman Rob very proud to take part in the first paid interview of his life (he got a free beer).

Some great insights, and there are several quick wins that Dubrovnik can implement to move the story along. Mayor Frankovic's commitment to providing a co-working space at the final press conference was vey encouraging. 

Also included here are two interviews with original DNIR, Carolyn Zelikow, who had to withdraw halfway, but spoke to us before she left, and Vanessa Anderson, who replaced her. 

For more news and features on digital nomads in Croatia, follow the dedicated TCN section.

Attention now turns to the Croatian capital, with Zagreb Digital Nomad Week & Zagreb Digital Nomad Ambassador project starting on June 21. More information on the Saltwater Nomads website.

May 31, 2021 - Corpus Christi holiday bookings in Croatia are growing, and Croatian hoteliers are looking forward to bookings picking up even more after June 3. 

HRT reports that hoteliers are more optimistic before the beginning of June than a few weeks ago because the epidemiological situation and the state of reservations and sales are better than last year. More tourists are expected around Corpus Christi, which will mark the beginning of the season.

"The epidemiological situation is improving, the framework of the border crossing regime has been defined, bilateral agreements are being worked on, and the vaccination rate is growing. With the easing of measures, optimism and a desire to travel grow, immediately evident in reservations. In some periods and some types of accommodation capacities, primarily camping and hotels of higher categories, reservations are approaching the figures from 2019," says the director of UPUHH (Association of Employers in the Croatian Hotel Industry) Bernard Zenzerović.

June without maximum occupancy, but in July and August, they are hoping for tourist crowds

However, in June, hoteliers do not expect maximum occupancy, but they hope for real tourist crowds in July and August and that they will have all facilities open. They are convinced that this year they can achieve a very good post-season, unlike last, when it was abruptly interrupted, though it is largely dependent on neighboring countries' travel regimes, especially Slovenia and Austria.

"Tourist demand is generally much better than last year. The largest demand comes from our traditional markets going to car destinations in the northern Adriatic regions. On the other hand, the situation is more uncertain in the south, which is more related to slower-recovering air traffic. Still, hoteliers believe that this will improve with the announced airlines and easing of restrictions, especially for British tourists, and that in the south, the results will be better than last year," says Zenzerović.

He also states that traditional markets, such as Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Poland, and the Czech Republic, are the 'most active' in the demand and reservations of hotels. He estimates that the reservations of domestic tourists are 'very well maintained.'

The strongest booking and sales channels are direct hotel channels, especially because of the flexibility that hoteliers offer this way, which guests expect due to the situation while booking through tour operators is much slower than in the years before the pandemic.

As they expect better physical traffic with more arrivals and overnight stays of tourists, hoteliers expect a generally better summer and business year than last year, which is primarily based on greater expected stability and longer season duration.

A 'war' on prices in the Mediterranean can be expected, but not a significant increase or decrease

"Although we have vaccines this year and vaccinations are growing rapidly, last year's experience must be a reminder that we must be disciplined and do our homework better this year," says the director of UPUHH, emphasizing that this year, unlike last year, the market is more active offered by all Mediterranean countries, which is why a kind of 'price war' can be expected.

Prices, as always, are defined by supply and demand, but Zenzerović says that they do not expect any significant horizontal growth of prices nor that there will be a need to lower them.

"Higher quality facilities have been proven to achieve better results at all levels, and that is the path we must take. Those who continuously invest in quality will achieve better results, and I believe that this is now clear to everyone in tourism," he says.

They will need significantly more workers than last year

When asked whether hoteliers have enough workers for this season and whether they will employ more seasonal workers, perhaps foreigners, Zenzerović answered that hoteliers must continue measures to preserve jobs for the final preparation of the season until the traffic reaches a level that will allow normalization of business.

As for additional demand, we will certainly need additional seasonal workers. Decisions on their number will be made depending on the development of the season and tourist demand. Still, from today's perspective, we see that we will need significantly more workers than last year, waiters, chefs, support workers, and domestic workers, who are most in-demand during the season," says the director of UPUHH.

Hoteliers will surely first look for ways to hire people from their communities. From other parts of Croatia, i.e., domestic, and only then, look for workers from other countries, primarily from those in the area.

"It is difficult to talk about the numbers at the moment, but we estimate that a significantly smaller number of foreign workers will be needed than in 2019, a maximum of about ten thousand of them," Zenzerović predicts.

For more about travel in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

ZAGREB, 30 May, 2021 - Marko Filipović of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) will be Rijeka mayor for the next four years, according to first unofficial results of the runoff.

With ballots from 94% of polling stations counted, the candidate of the SDP-HSU-IDS-HSS coalition won about 55% of the vote, while his opponent, independent candidate Davor Štimac, received 45%.

Filipović expressed his satisfaction with the results and said that "Rijeka has proved that social democracy lives in Rijeka, that it has lived and that it will live for the next four years".

Asked whether he offered any changes compared to his predecessor, he said that "this is definitely a change".

"I am Marko Filipović, I thank Vojko Obersnel for 21 years of defending social democratic values in Rijeka."

He said that among the first projects to be implemented include the construction of two new kindergartens, 1,000 new flats and opening Rijeka towards the sea.

Asked about forming a majority in the city council, he said that talks were under way and that he was sure a majority would be formed in the coming weeks.

He thanked everyone who voted and congratulated his opponent on his result.

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

For more about Croatia, CLICK HERE.

ZAGREB, 30 May, 2021 - The HDZ's candidate for Osijek Mayor, Ivan Radić, who on Sunday won runoff elections in that eastern Croatian city, said that his victory was a convincing one but that there was no room for euphoria and that he would get down to work and project implementation immediately after taking office.

Preliminary results, collected from all 117 city polling stations, show that Radić won 15,526 votes and his rival, independent candidate Berislav Mlinarević, backed by the Homeland Movement and Bridge, 9,241 votes.

"I have talked to (outgoing) Mayor Ivica Vrkić, the transfer of duties will be performed as soon as possible so that we could get down to work... Osijek must become a real Slavonian metropolis and driver of Slavonia's development," said Radić.

Considering that the HDZ and its partners have a majority in the Osijek City Council, Radić said that that was important because of stability and the need to start with preparations for its first session.

Radić thanked voters for taking part in the elections, calling on members of the city council to be constructive and promising to be inclusive and support any good project.

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

For more about Croatia, CLICK HERE.

ZAGREB, 30 May, 2021 - Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) on Sunday evening said that the HDZ won the elections in 15 out of the 20 counties.

After the State Election Commission (DIP) started publishing incomplete results after the second round of the local elections, Jandroković said that the outcome of both rounds of the elections showed that the HDZ had county prefects in 15 counties.

He expressed satisfaction with the results showing that the HDZ candidates for county prefects defeated the incumbents in Varaždin and Bjelovar Counties as well as in Lika County.

He elaborated that the HDZ won the elections for the prefects of all the five counties in the eastern Croatian area of Slavonia.

Jandroković conceded the defeat of the HDZ incumbent county prefect in Šibenik-Knin County.

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

For more about Croatia, CLICK HERE.

ZAGREB, 30 May, 2021 - According to preliminary election results released by the State Election Commission (DIP) at 8.20 pm on Sunday, Tomislav Tomašević is in the lead in the race for Zagreb mayor, Marko Filipović is leading in Rijeka and Ivica Puljak in Split, while Ivan Radić has won the elections in Osijek.

After ballots from 67% of the polling stations in Zagreb were counted, Tomašević, the candidate of the We Can!, Zagreb is Ours, New Left, Orah and For the City parties is leading convincingly, with 66.9% of the vote, ahead of his rival Miroslav Škoro of the Homeland Movement, who has won 33.1% of the vote.

In Split, Ivica Puljak of the Centre party is in the lead with 60.2% of the vote, while Vice Mihanović of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) has 39.7% of the vote.

Current Rijeka deputy mayor Marko Filipović, the candidate of the Social Democratic Party, Croatian Pensioners' Party, Istrian Democratic Party and Croatian Peasant Party, is in the lead with 55.1% of the vote, followed by independent candidate Davor Štimac, with 44.8% of the vote.

In Osijek, Ivan Radić of the HDZ party has won 62.6% of the vote after all ballots were counted, while independent candidate Berislav Mlinarević, backed by the Homeland Movement and Bridge, has won 37.3% of the vote.

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

For more news about Croatia, CLICK HERE.