Politics

ZAGREB, 2 Oct, 2021 - The Social Democratic Party's Main Committee decided on Saturday that the four MPs ousted from the SDP could no longer be members of its parliamentary group and that this would also apply to all members of representative bodies at all levels who did not implement decisions of the party's bodies. Main Committee chair Marija Lugarić told the press that 58 members voted for the decision, eight were against and five abstained. She would not say what would happen to the MPs who voted against the ousting of Nikša Vukas, Zvane Brumnić, Rajko Ostojić and Marina Opačak Bilić from the parliamentary group at a…

ZAGREB, 2 Oct, 2021 - Three parties on Saturday joined the parliamentary opposition Croatian Sovereignists party - the Croatian Conservative Party, Hrast - Movement for a Successful Croatia, and the Renewal Generation, and now they will jointly act under one name. Sovereignists MP Marijan Pavliček told the press after the founding assembly that this was "a good start" of a coming together on the right wing, "three political groups plus a large chunk of the membership and presidency of the Independents for Croatia." He voiced confidence that in the next year or two they would become the strongest right-wing political group in the…

October 1, 2021 - The European Youth and IT Industry Panel, part of the European Future Conference, talked about the importance of the IT sector and AI technology. The host city of Osijek is already displaying fantastic results in the field as a digital Osijek becomes more and more of a reality. The last day of September, which is the unofficial start of new victories and losses for the Croatian youth (due to the beginning of the school year and final deadline exams for students), has been completed with a suitable discussion on the future of new generations. Osijek, the…

ZAGREB, 1 Oct 2021 - GLAS party leader and MP Anka Mrak-Taritaš has submitted a conclusion to the parliament calling on it to oblige the government to make sure all school-goers have access to psychological help due to the negative impact of the coronavirus pandemic and earthquakes as of the next school year. Mrak-Taritaš told a press conference on Friday that the Zagreb Institute for Social Research recently published a survey covering 27,000 students, 417 experts and 4,796 teachers. The survey showed that the coronavirus pandemic has negatively or extremely negatively impacted the lives of most students, affecting their motivation…

ZAGREB, 1 Oct 2021 - The State Commission for the Supervision of Public Procurement Procedures has quashed a decision by Zagreb Mayor Tomislav Tomašević and the city will have to complete a previous tender and sign a preliminary agreement with the Reoma Group or Petar Pripuz's Cezar company, Večernji List reports on Friday. Mayor Tomašević recently cancelled a tender for the recycling of bulky waste, explaining that the city did not need privately owned companies to do it because its Čistoća public sanitation company could do the job. Two bids had been submitted to the tender, one by the Reoma…

ZAGREB, 30 Sept 2021 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Thursday that Croatia had been an EU member for eight years, that it had experience and was respected, and that getting as much money as possible was not the reason it joined the EU but that the values and principles on which the EU was founded were more important. The EU is founded on democracy, human rights protection, rule of law, market economy and, most importantly, the Christian principle of solidarity, which imbues all EU policies, he stressed. Plenković was speaking at the opening of a two-day hybrid conference called "Days…

October the 1st, 2021 - Zoran Milanovic is known for not mincing his words and speaking his mind. The president, who is also a former prime minister, has become somewhat famous (or infamous, it depends how you view it) for his creative insults and wars of words with PM Andrej Plenkovic. He has now spoken frankly about his beliefs about the former local Zagreb government, and the poor management which caused the dire issues the city is facing today. As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Croatian President Zoran Milanovic said on Wednesday that, as far as reconstruction after the devastating earthquake of March…

October the 1st, 2021 - Brussels has paid the Republic of Croatia an advance payment from the so-called recovery mechanism, totalling 818.4 million euros, the largest single payment from the EU since the country's membership of the bloc. As Poslovni Dnevnik/Ana Blaskovic writes, the Croatian state budget finally received a generous financial injection of 818.4 million euros, or 6.14 billion kuna, from the Belgian capital, more precisely from the recovery mechanism. This is, as stated, the largest single payout from the EU since Croatia's accession to the bloc back in July 2013, but it is also the only amount guaranteed…

September 30, 2021 - The Zagreb University Student Council president Mihovil Mioković has published the expenses of the council. 700,000 kuna spent on questionable things stirred up quite the controversy. Established on September 23, 1669, Zagreb University remains the oldest and biggest university in Croatia to this day, but sadly, it has plenty of issues with the current University Chancellor Damir Boras. As TCN wrote earlier in March of 2021, the Independent Union of Research and Higher Education Employees of Croatia ousted both Boras and Vice-Chancellor Miljenko Šimpraga. The causes of that were, as the Union said, various violations of…

ZAGREB, 30 Sept 2021 - The government on Thursday sent a bill on the Croatian Science Foundation into the parliamentary procedure, proposing that the Foundation, which currently has the status of a non-profit organization, acquire the status of a state budget user. The Foundation was established in 2001, and the new bill was sent to the parliament since the existing legislation is outdated and does not regulate the system for funding science in a way that would be in line with all demands of the current Croatian and European research area. "The new bill is a key point for the…