Politics

June the 7th, 2021 - New Zagreb Mayor Tomislav Tomasevic has been making quite the healthy habit of walking to work, citing the Croatian capital's dire financial status and three years of irresponsibility.  As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, upon arriving to work on foot once again on Monday, new Zagreb Mayor Tomislav Tomasevic said that he and his associates also came to work over the weekend to try to sort thing out as quickly as possible. He made sure to note that "the financial situation is not good" in the City of Zagreb. "This is just the result of three years…

June the 7th, 2021 - The much desired voluntary Croatian Chamber of Commerce membership won't come to be, despite the pleas and frustrations of many company owners who can't seem to understand what on Earth they're paying for by being forced to be members. As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Brnic writes, about a month or so ago, the Croatian Government left the domestic economy in doubt as to what model of Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK) system reform to follow. It had otherwise changed the previously announced abolition of mandatory Croatian Chamber of Commerce membership for all companies to the retention of mandatory…

ZAGREB, 6 June, 2021 - Danijel Ferić, the Social Democratic Party's (SDP) candidate for Istra County Prefect, who was defeated by Boris Miletić of the Istrian Democratic Party (IDS) by a slim margin of a few dozen votes, on Sunday announced a complaint against the State Electoral Commission's (DIP) decision. The Constitution Court has a 48-hour deadline to respond to the objections to be lodged by Ferić and the SDP on Monday. On Saturday, DIP affirmed the victory of IDS leader Boris Miletić in the election runoff on 30 May for the new Istria County prefect. During its hours-long session the commission…

ZAGREB, 5 June 2021 - Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić Radman said on Saturday that Croatia was a committed advocate of Bosnia and Herzegovina's journey towards the Euro-Atlantic institutions, and interested in enabling Croats to have an equal status with the other two constituent peoples in that country. Addressing a conference organised in Split on the occasion of the launch of a four-volume book written by Bosnian Croat leader, Dragan Čović, the Croatian minister of foreign and European affairs said that the book testified about Čović's political struggle ad also about economic, media and diplomatic aspects of the fight for the Croatian cause. Commenting…

ZAGREB, 5 June 2021 - The Foreign Policy Forum, which will bring together experts, scientists, journalists and young researchers from Croatia and the world interested in international relations, has been established in Zagreb. The Forum was established on 26 March and officially registered on 4 June. Its founders are academic researchers, former diplomats and officials with executive state powers, including former Croatian foreign minister Vesna Pusić, journalists and young experts in social sciences. The Foreign Policy Forum will analyse and examine international relations and foreign policies, and organise constructive public debates, talks and researches. Since November, its initiators have organised four debates, which drew researchers, international…

ZAGREB, 4 June 2021 - Following Croatia's local election runoffs on 30 May, several long-standing county prefects and mayors were unseated while some decided not to rerun, and on Friday transfers of powers were held in those units of local government and some other cities and county seats. Apart from the focus on the change of power in Zagreb, where the new mayor Tomislav Tomašević of the Green-Left bloc took over office from the acting mayor Jelena Pavičić Vukičević, who temporarily stepped into office after the death of Mayor Milan Bandić on 28 February, the transfer of powers in Pula, Osijek, Sibenik-Knin and Varaždin counties also…

ZAGREB, 4 June 2021 - War Veterans Minister Tomo Medved said on Friday the 5 August 1995 Operation Storm would be commemorated across the country but that Knin remained the central place for the Victory Day celebration. He was commenting on President Zoran Milanović's proposal that this year Victory Day be commemorated in Glina instead of Knin. Speaking to the press in Petrinja, Medved said 50 towns and municipalities had been financed every year since 2016 where Operation Storm was commemorated, notably in previously occupied areas, adding that the Croatian Army's symbolic victory near Glina had not been forgotten. That's why, he…

ZAGREB, 4 June 2021 - Former acting Zagreb mayor Jelena Pavičić Vukičević said on Friday the city ended last year HRK 90 million in the red. Speaking on N1 television, she said annual borrowing was always done with the consent of the Finance Ministry, that it never exceeded 20% of the city budget, and that borrowing until 2035 totalled HRK 2 billion. She also said that everyone working in the city administration had passed a public call for applications. "It's a procedure that lasts six months in which diplomas and other documents are verified, and it's a procedure the new mayor will…

ZAGREB, 4 June 2021 - Both the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the Istrian Democratic Party (IDS) have lodged objections regarding the ballot counting in the 30 May election for Istrian county prefect and are now waiting for the response from the State Election Commission (DIP), Jutarnji List daily said on Friday. According to the results from DIP, SDP candidate Danijel Ferić was defeated  by IDS leader Boris Miletić by a margin of only 54 votes, which prompted the SDP to request a ballot recount at 12 polling stations. The SDP has said that they they have found 41 more ballots in…

ZAGREB, 4 June 2021 - Addressing the press after the ceremony of the transfer of powers in Zagreb's city administration on Friday morning, the new mayor Tomislav Tomašević, said that a state of affairs in the city's finances was not good, however, there were solutions that would be discussed in greater detail. Tomašević, who was presented with two-thousand-odd-page reports on the 2020 budget execution and preliminary figures on this year's budget by the former acting mayor Jelena Pavičić Vukičević, said that the overall financial picture was not good. He, however, stopped short of giving more information about the debt of the…