Politics

ZAGREB, 4 May, 2021 - About 10% of the total of 555 towns and municipalities in Croatia already know who their mayors will be over the next four years because they are sole candidates running in the 16 May local elections. The Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) can already claim victory in four towns and 44 municipalities, as shown by the data on mayoral nominations available on the Electoral Commission's website. This was also noted by the HDZ leader, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, on Monday. "At this point the HDZ has already won in 48 local government units, which speaks of…

May 3, 2021 - One-quarter of young Croats are politically illiterate, Professor Berto Šalaj from the Faculty of Political Sciences in Zagreb said on Monday while presenting the results of a recent survey. The survey was conducted in March this year among 1,122 final-year secondary school students in 59 schools. Insufficient implementation of civic education Commenting on students' poor results in three-year vocational programs, who accounted for 23% of the respondents, Profesor Šalaj said that "society has decided that they do not need to be politically literate." That, in turn, means that as future voters in elections, they don't need to know anything about…

May the 3rd, 2021 - Croatian Labour Minister Josip Aladrovic sat down to listen to the concerns both employers and employees have had to deal with throughout the pandemic, touched on the regulation of remote work and telework, and offered assurances about the refined Labour Law. As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the president of the Independent Croatian Trade Unions, Kresimir Sever, said on a recent HRT show that employees aren't in the center of attention, as was the case in previous years, because the coronavirus crisis has become a much more important topic. He added that workers' problems have been set…

May 2, 2021 - In a press release, the candidate for the mayor of Dubrovnik, Andro Vlahušić, asked for experienced people and professionals to save the cruising season. As Dulist.hr reports, Andro Vlahušić has requested a staff solution regarding the Dubrovnik Port Authority director, Blaž Pezo, through an open statement from his platform, Dubrovnik our city: ‘‘Dubrovnik is, among other things, a city of sailors. In history, they created a network of trade and connected the city with the whole world. Even today, Dubrovnik naval officers have impressive captaincy and managerial careers at the world's largest companies. That is why…

ZAGREB, 2 May 2021 - President Zoran Milanović has condemned an incident that occurred in the eastern town of Borovo on Sunday morning when a group of young men chanted anti-Serb slogans, calling it shameful and heinous hate speech. "In Borovo today a group of men tried to incite violence using heinous hate speech against our fellow citizens Serbs. That is a disgrace and deserves absolute condemnation," Milanović wrote on Facebook.  He criticized the police, whom he called the police of Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and Serb leader Milorad Pupovac, for not taking pre-emptive action to prevent the incident. The…

ZAGREB, 1 May 2021 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković issued a message for International Workers' Day on Saturday, noting that this year it is being celebrated in the challenging circumstances of the fight against the coronavirus epidemic and in the aftermath of devastating earthquakes that struck Croatia last year. "It is therefore important that we mark International Workers' Day responsibly, by complying with all the epidemiological measures in place, and that in the coming weeks when we expect more vaccines to come, we all make our contribution to the success of the vaccination campaign and thus end this health threat…

May the 1st, 2021 - How can the Croatian recovery plan add to the country's GDP by the year 2026? With the ongoing coronavirus dealing blow after blow, help from the European Union's special mechanism could be the rescue package the Croatian economy needs. As Poslovni Dnevnik/Jadranka Dozan writes, in order to use the 47 billion kuna in grants from the EU's Recovery and Resilience Mechanism over the next five or six years, the Croatian Government prepared a National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NPO) for final consultations with the European Commission with 152 investment projects and 77 reforms on the…

ZAGREB, 30 April, 2021 - Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić Radman said in Petrinja on Friday that the cooperation between Zagreb and Rome has been reinforced bilaterally and trilaterally, thanking Italy for its latest aid following last year's earthquake. At a working meeting at the "Colonel Predrag Matanović" barracks in Petrinja, the ministers talked about Southeast Europe and agreed that EU enlargement to the Western Balkans is a guarantee of strengthening the stability of the neighbourhood and Europe as a whole, the Croatian minister said. Both ministers visited Bosnia and Herzegovina in recent weeks, and Croatia and Italy together strive for a…

ZAGREB, 30 April, 2021 - President Zoran Milanović on Friday issued a congratulatory message on the occasion of International Workers' Day on 1 May, saying that "it is the obligation of all of us, as a society, to work more, smarter and more thoughtfully because the world around us has also changed due to the crisis". "This year again we are celebrating International Workers' Day in the circumstances that prevent Croatian workers from celebrating that important date traditionally and appropriately. It is an even bigger problem that many people don't have a reason to celebrate because they have either lost…

ZAGREB, 30 April, 2021 - Defence Minister Mario Banožić said on Friday that the Croatian Army is not a training ground for political rivalry, adding that he will never allow his actions to put the army in a position to be used for political recriminations. "The key is a Croatian Army that needs to develop. It isn't a training ground for political rivalry. I will never do anything, regardless of whoever wants to put me in that position, to make the Croatian Army a topic for political recriminations. The Army does credit to us all, particularly now when we are marking…