Croatia's Coronavirus Update May 17: 116 New Cases, 30 Deaths
May 17, 2021 - Croatia's coronavirus update May 17 has recorded 116 new coronavirus cases and 30 COVID-related deaths in the last 24 hours, the national coronavirus response team said on Monday.
The number of active cases currently stands at 5,293. Of them, 1,662 infected people are being treated in hospitals, including 173 placed on ventilators. A total of 19,085 people are self-isolating.
Since 25 February 2020, when the first case was confirmed in the country, 350,506 people have been registered as infected with the novel SARS-CoV-2 virus, of whom 7,738 have died 337,475 have recovered, including 1,025 in the last 24 hours.
A total of 1,929,591 people have been tested for COVID-19 to date, including 2,329 in the last 24 hours.
As of 16 May, 1,349,447 doses of vaccine have been administered, with 1,041,215 people receiving one dose and 308,232 receiving both doses. On 16 May alone, 2,456 doses were administered.
For more about Covid-19 in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.
Sanja Vrančić: Mandolin Player in Istria Among Most Respected Mandolinists in Europe
May 17, 2021 - Sanja Vrančić, one of the most respected mandolinists in this part of Europe, stripped naked, metaphorically and literally, for her new music video.
Mandolinist Sanja Vrančić recorded the instrumental arrangement of Chris Isaac's Wicked Game. The video brings a strong contrast between the vulnerable intimacy of the musician and the cruel nature of the Istrian Cape Kamenjak.
Press Release | Sanja Lydia Kulušić
"I fell in love with this song because it sings about passion, it is full of hidden eroticism. Chris Isaac, the author, wrote about a woman he obsessively loved at one stage of his life. I did it to convey your emotion. They intertwined in some inexplicable way," Sanja Vrančić added: “The song is about desire, about the power of passion that overwhelms a person and deprives him of the power of rational thinking. Passion as natural opium is inexhaustible to me as a source of inspiration."
She also revealed how she started creating an independent song with this song album but presented it to the public only for the third time in a row. She recorded the previous video in Kornati National Park and the newest in the area of protected Kamenjak.
"Both locations impressed me as wilderness of untouched beauty, untamed and defiant character. I also recognize some of these traits in myself. Wind and sun power which dispersed the gray clouds, blended perfectly with the rush of the SUV by the ways of the cruel Kamenjak", said the instrumentalist who is also called "The Mandolin Woman".
Since she was creating the script for the video herself, she felt the need to give contrast shots of a crude nature. So she stripped naked showing her tender and vulnerable side, just the one who suffers in situations like the one sung with the song Wicked Games. At the same time, she admitted that she found herself in what Isaac calls a perverted game.
Press Release | Sanja Lydia Kulušić
"There is no stronger force than magnetic attraction. She, as much as she is comfortable, is often also synonymous with pain. It happens when passion connects two wrong people," commented Sanja Vrančić and revealed that she does not know how to give advice on how to control feelings with reason because and she allows herself to be guided by emotions.
She worked on the song and the accompanying video with the team that she created the whole album. The music video was filmed on the Istrian cape Kamenjak.
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Mayors of Four County Capitals Win Another Four-Year Term in First Local Election Round
17 May 2021 - The mayors of four county capitals secured another four-year term already in the first round local elections, while 11 incumbents will try to win another term in office in the 30 May runoff, according to data released by the Electoral Commission.
Zoran Gregurović of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) will remain the mayor of Krapina after receiving 59.56% of votes. The HDZ's Ivica Kirin will remain in the mayoral seat in Virovitica, capturing 51.53% of votes in the first round.
The Social Democratic Party's (SDP) Mišel Jakšić will continue as the mayor of Koprivnica after winning 59.17% of votes on Sunday.
Bjelovar is also the town that will be led over the next four years by the incumbent mayor, Dario Hrebak of the Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS), who took a convincing 66.86% of votes in the first round.
In Velika Gorica, the largest town in Zagreb County, the incumbent Krešimir Ačkar, backed by the HDZ-led coalition, received 50.1% of votes and will stay in office for another four years.
The HDZ will also have a mayor in Požega, where Željko Glavić won 51.13% of votes.
11 incumbent mayors seek another term in a runoff
In Vukovar, the present mayor Ivan Peneva (Independent List) won 43.8% of votes and will face the HDZ's Nikola Mažar, who received 24.81% in the 30 May runoff.
The incumbent HDZ mayor of Šibenik, Željko Burić (46.63%), will go to the runoff with the SDP's Tonči Restović (18.94%), as will the HDZ's mayor of Zadar, Branko Dukić (38.47%), and the SDP's Marko Vučetić (26.32%).
Two weeks from now, Dubrovnik will choose its mayor between the HDZ's incumbent Mate Franković (36.87%) and his challenger Pero Vićan of the Dubrovnik Democratic Assembly (DDS) who won 13.54% of votes in the first round.
The HDZ's Damir Mandić (47.79%) will seek another term as mayor of Karlovac in a faceoff with the SDP's Davor Petračić (33.35%), and in Sisak, the incumbent Kristina Ikić Baniček of the SDP (39.55%) will compete against the HDZ's Željka Josić (33.61%).
For more news about politics in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.
Andrej Plenković: HDZ Will Have Most County Prefects, Mayors, Municipal Heads
17 May 2021 - Prime Minister and HDZ president Andrej Plenković said that the party's result in local elections was very good and victorious on Sunday night. In the next four years, the HDZ would have the most county prefects, mayors, and municipal heads.
"Our result is very good, victorious. Looking at the overall results, the HDZ will again be the party which will have the most county prefects, mayors, and municipal heads in the next four years," he said in the HDZ's campaign headquarters in Zagreb.
He congratulated everyone who took part in the elections and especially citizens who voted for the candidates of the HDZ and its partners.
Plenković said he was pleased that four HDZ candidates for prefects had won in the first round and that its candidates would be in runoffs with convincing leads in eight counties.
He singled out the results of Gari Cappelli and Anđelko Stričak in Primorje-Gorski Kotar and Varaždin counties. He congratulated Ivan Radić and Vice Mihanović for their results in Osijek and Split.
As for Davor Filipović, the party's mayoral candidate in Zagreb, Plenković said he was a new asset for the party. He did a fantastic job during the campaign, and that he was a first-class politician for big elections.
"The HDZ is the second slate in Zagreb, which is extremely good. It's a new generation of HDZ politicians in Zagreb, and I'm confident that in the years ahead, they will gain more experience and offer even better solutions for Zagreb."
Filipović, who ranked fourth in the Zagreb mayoral race with less than 10% of the vote, congratulated Tomislav Tomašević on receiving the largest number of votes in the first round and apologized; to the other candidates if, during the campaign, he said "one word too many."
He said his own result was almost twice as good as the HDZ mayoral candidate's four years ago and twice as good as in 2013. "Therefore, we have reason to be optimistic, and that's a pledge for the future to work for the good of Zagreb."
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Tomislav Tomašević: We'll Win in Two Weeks With Free Hand to Effect Change
17 May 2021 - Zagreb mayoral candidate Tomislav Tomašević of the We Can! and Zagreb Is Ours! the coalition, which has won 45% of the vote in today's local elections, said on Sunday night they would win with a free hand in the runoff so that they could effect changes.
"We'll win in two weeks with heads held high and be able to look everyone in the eye. We'll win in two weeks without having sold our souls and without owing anyone so that we can have a free hand to carry out changes so that this city can be a better place to live for all," he said.
Tomašević said that by giving him the largest support, the people of Zagreb said that Zagreb did not belong to an interest group but to all who live in it. "And that's why Zagreb is ours!"
He said that in Zagreb, the coalition had made one and a half of the two steps necessary to rid the city of the octopus of corruption and that "only half a step more is necessary" to change the model of governance.
He said there was no time to relax and that in the next two weeks of campaigning before the runoff, the coalition would lead a positive campaign and "again give our all."
"We'll continue to lead a positive campaign and focus on the problems of this city and solutions to those problems. We won't resort to dirty tricks like some of our rivals," Tomašević said.
For more news about politics in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.
Six Counties Get Prefects in The First Round, 14 to Have Runoffs
17 May 2021 - Preliminary results released by the State Election Commission (DIP) after Sunday's local elections show that six counties elected their prefects in the first round of voting. Those candidates won more than 50% of the ballot.
Of those six prefects, four are Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) representatives: Antonija Jozić of Požega-Slavona, Igor Andrilović of Virovitica-Podravina County, Ivan Anušić of Osijek-Baranja County, and Danijel Marušić of Slavonski-Brod Posavina County.
Social Democrat (SDP) official Željko Kolar was reelected prefect of Krapina-Zagorje County, and Matija Posavec, an independent candidate, was re-elected as the head of Međimurje County.
In the other 14 counties, the first two vote-getters will participate in the runoffs on 30 May.
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Miroslav Škoro: We Have Achieved Our Goals, We'll Stop The Left
17 May 2021 - The Homeland Movement's candidate for Zagreb mayor, Miroslav Škoro, said on Sunday night, the party had achieved its goals and that they would stop and unmask the green-left coalition trying to conquer Zagreb, calling it extremely leftist.
That is not the future of our country, of Zagreb and our children, said Škoro, who will be in the mayoral runoff with Tomislav Tomašević of the We Can! platform, who has won 45% of the vote in Sunday's elections.
Škoro said he was confident that he would show in the runoff that there was enough sense and intelligence "so that we can unmask in a well-argued debate what is called the green-left coalition."
"That's neither green nor only left-wing. That's first and foremost and above all extremely left-wing, and it will be stopped in the runoff."
Škoro said that despite the big job ahead, he was sure that with faith in God and His help, Zagreb would have a new mayor in two weeks who was not from any green or left coalition but a person who would continue the city's tradition and all that contemporary democracy was in the current world.
He said that in just one year of its existence, the Homeland Movement had achieved enormous results, leaving behind the two major parties, the HDZ and the SDP, in many municipalities and cities, including in Zagreb.
For more news about politics in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.
HNL Round 35 Recap: Hajduk Tops Sibenik, Rijeka Defeats Varazdin to Stay in 4th
May 17, 2021 - The 35th round of the Croatian First League was held on May 15 and 16, 2021. This round saw Hajduk defeat Sibenik, while Rijeka topped Varazdin to remain in 4th place. Here is our HNL round 35 recap.
Istra 1961 v. Slaven Belupo (1:0)
Istra and Belupo opened the 35th round on Saturday, May 15, 2021, in Pula.
While the first half went without goals, the only goal of the match came at the start of the second half when Vuk scored for 1:0 and the eventual Istra victory.
Istra is currently in 9th place with 29 points, while Belupo is in 7th with 31.
Lokomotiva v. Osijek (0:2)
Lokomotiva and Osijek met in Zagreb on Saturday, May 15, 2021.
Zaper scored Osijek's first goal which was called offside thanks to VAR in the 14th minute. The first half ended at 0:0. Kleinheisler scored in the 60th minute to finally put Osijek in the lead, though Mierez missed a penalty 13 minutes later to keep the game 0:1. Bohar scored for 0:2 in the 3rd minute of added time.
Lokomotiva is currently in 8th place with 30 points, while Osijek is in 2nd with 74.
Varazdin v. Rijeka (2:3)
Varazdin and Rijeka met in Varazdin on Sunday, May 16, 2021.
Obregon scored the first goal for Varazdin in the 34th minute for 1:0 at the half. Rijeka's Menalo equalized in the 62nd minute, and Capan put Rijeka ahead five minutes later for 1:2. Drmic made it 1:3 for Rijeka in the 79th minute, and Novoselec scored in the 84th for a final score of 2:3.
Varazdin is currently in last place with 28 points, while Rijeka is in 4th with 58.
Sibenik v. Hajduk (0:2)
Sibenik and Hajduk met in Sibenik on Sunday, May 17, 2021.
While the first half went without goals, a Livaja header made it 0:1 for Hajduk in the 58th minute. Jakolis increased Hajduk's lead to 0:2 in the 70th.
Sibenik is currently in 6th place with 35 points, while Hajduk is in 5th with 57.
Gorica v. Dinamo (0:3)
Gorica and Dinamo closed out the 35th round in Velika Gorica on Sunday, May 16, 2021.
The Croatian champions were too strong for Gorica with two goals by Gavranovic already in the first half (3', 36'). Lovric missed a penalty for Gorica in the 87th minute. Gavranovic secured a hat-trick with a final goal in the 3rd minute of added time for 0:3.
Gorica is currently in 3rd place with 59 points, while Dinamo became already became Croatian champions this season, with 82 points in 1st place.
You can see the full HNL table HERE.
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Elections in Dubrovnik: Winners Expected, Exciting Race for Runners Up
May 17, 2021 – Sunday welcomed the Croatian local elections. The elected officials will hold the political power on city and county levels which in many ways affects the everyday lives of Croatian people more than the national parliament or the president. A look at the elections in Dubrovnik.
Croatian election results are the main topic this Monday. It has been a slow and quiet campaign compared to most previous ones. This is mainly due to the pandemic and the current financial situation. Without all the bells and whistles, there were some results that surprised the general public. Still, the majority of the winners were as expected. For the vast majority of the towns and counties, the election process is not over. Many of them will have to go into second round of voting to find new mayors and county prefects. The top two candidates with the most votes in the first round will go over to the runoffs for a head-to-head election showdown.
Race for Mayor
As reported by Dubrovacki Vjesnik, both Dubrovnik and Dubrovnik-Neretva County will have to go into runoffs in order to elect the mayor of Dubrovnik and the county prefect. On the city and county level in the Dubrovnik area, the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) is starting round two from the winning position. Mato Frankovic, reigning mayor of Dubrovnik, won the popular vote in the city with 36,7% of votes. Political veteran, Pero Vican finished behind him with 13,54% of votes. He won second place after a neck and neck battle with the former mayor of Dubrovnik, Andro Vlahusic. Considering the gap in results between Frankovic and Vican, the second round of Dubrovnik's race for mayor should confirm the results of the first one. However, everybody in Dubrovnik knows Pero Vican is not a politician to be underestimated.
Results on the County Level
Current county prefect, HDZ's Nikola Dobroslavic, took the win in the first round of voting with an impressive 40,12% of votes. The runner-up was Most party's Bozo Petrov with 21,11%. Petrov is a young, but already established politician. He is a current member of the Croatian Parliament and the leader of the Most party. He is a considerably younger and less experienced competitor than Dobroslavic. With this in mind, it will be an exciting second round of voting in Dubrovnik-Neretva County. The main dilemma before the voters is whether they want more of the same or are looking for a change.
For more news about politics in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.
UNESCO Couple Jana+Matt Visit Šibenik (PHOTOS)
May 17, 2021 - Jana+Matt are a travel couple on a challenge to become the 1st to visit all 1121 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The UNESCO couple tells TCN about visiting Šibenik.
Hi there, Matt and Jana here. You may have met us on here a month ago, and now, one month later, we are still in Croatia! If you’ve missed our intro, we’re on an epic expedition to become to first on the planet to visit all UNESCO World Heritage Sites!
Our Croatian part of the Expedition started on the 12th of April, and we have just celebrated our first monthiversary road-tripping this beautiful country.
We arrived in Croatia by bus from Prague in the Czech Republic. A full-day trip passing through both Austria and Slovenia. It was pretty cool seeing 4 countries in one day.
We’ve had a lot of people asking what it’s like to travel during a global pandemic - it was surprisingly easy. There were only about 10 passengers on the bus, the time flew by, and before sunset, we arrived at the bus station in Zagreb. We only needed to show our negative Covid-19 tests, and that was it. Croatia is welcoming tourists, and we have definitely felt welcome everywhere we’ve visited so far.
There are 10 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Croatia, and we’re planning to visit all of them. Two of them are actually located in the same city - Šibenik, so let’s start there. We absolutely adored this charming Dalmatian town! You guys get comfy, and we’ll take you with us on this adventure, starting with our impressions from Šibenik.
We started our day there with a guided tour of the Cathedral of St. James, the first UNESCO site in Šibenik. You might be wondering what makes a cathedral so special that in the year 2000, it was added to the list of World Heritage sites? The cathedral was built between the 15th and 16th century, and the entire structure was built only using stone! Even the dome is built entirely from stone, which makes it a thoroughly unique construction technique. It is also a beautiful blend of Gothic and Renaissance styles. It’s a gorgeous building inside and out; we were especially blown away by the baptistery, which is just beautiful.
After the tour, we spent a good chunk of time just wandering around, getting lost in the charming streets and exploring hidden corners, one of our favourite activities in any city we visit. Our tour guide recommended a lovely local restaurant tucked away in one of those hidden corners, grandma-style cooking, which we love.
We also popped into Civitas Sacra - a playful, fun, and interactive museum explaining the story of the Cathedral. Upstairs they have a restaurant with stunning views of the city; you can stop for a coffee or a bite and relax there.
In the evening, we hopped on a boat and headed to visit our second UNESCO site in Šibenik - St. Nicholas Fortress, one of the most important Venetian fortifications. Built in the 16th century to defend the port of Šibenik, which was at the time the most important port on the east coast of the Adriatic, from the Ottomans. The unique triangular fortress, accessible only by boat, makes for an exciting visit. We loved exploring the underground catacombs and prisons and imagining what life must have been like back then.
The boat took us through St. Anthony’s Channel, which was once a canyon of the Krka river, such a beautiful area full of biodiversity and the film location of Braavos in Game of Thrones!
Taking the boat back gave us a stunning panorama of the city, it’s really beautiful to see it from the sea.
It was a bit crazy exploring the empty city, empty because of the pandemic, not because it’s not an exciting place, quite the opposite. We fell in love with Šibenik, its beautiful location on the coast, its historic centre, its 2 UNESCO sites, and its proximity to Krka National Park, where we spent another amazing day soaking up the beauty of nature and marvelling at waterfalls!
This city has a special energy, and we hope you could feel at least a glimpse of it through our eyes. Now it’s time for you to pack your bags and see it for yourselves! And in the meantime, follow us at @GuideVenturous for daily updates from our Croatian adventure!
To learn more about Sibenik, check out our Total Croatia page.
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