Politics
Tuesday, 9 February 2021
Plenković: China's Aid Helped Save Many Lives at Start of Pandemic
ZAGREB, 9 February 2021 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on Tuesday attended a virtual meeting of the China+17 initiative, thanking the Chinese authorities for their assistance in providing protective equipment at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. The initiative, launched in 2012 with a view to boosting Chinese investment in Europe, held its last summit in Dubrovnik 2019 when it was joined by Greece. Live meetings were postponed because of the coronavirus outbreak. Addressing the video conference, Plenković said that China+17 was a unique initiative building bridges between Europe and Asia, adding that it was complementary to the European Union. He…
Tuesday, 9 February 2021
Ministry Approves Financial Support for Freelance Artists for January
ZAGREB, 9 February 2021 - The Culture Ministry has approved financial support for freelance artists to help them cope with the circumstances caused by the coronavirus pandemic and grants for January will be paid into their accounts by February 15. Of 870 applications for grants in the amount of HRK 4,000 (€533) per artist, the ministry has approved 847. The freelance artists in question have their contributions paid from the state budget. The Culture Ministry said that a new decision on financial support for freelance artists for February would be made depending on the state's financial capacity.
Tuesday, 9 February 2021
Secondary School Union Says All Demands from Teachers' Strike Met
ZAGREB, 9 February 2021 - The Independent Union of Employees in Secondary Schools (NSZSŠH) said on Tuesday that wages in education had increased at least 12.23% since December 2019, whereby all the demands put to the government during the longest school strike ever have been met. Today, following wage index and supplement increases, all the demands made in the longest and largest ever strike in education have been met after an agreement was reached with the government on 2 December 2019, union leader Branimir Mihalinec said in a statement. Mihalinec noted that the strike succeeded in having the job complexity wage index increase by 6.11% for all…
Tuesday, 9 February 2021
Croatian Presidential and Parliamentary Elections Cost €23.6m
ZAGREB, 9 February 2021 - Last year's Croatian presidential and parliamentary elections cost the government nearly HRK 177 million (€23.6m), the State Electoral Commission says in its annual work report. The parliamentary election, held in July 2020, cost HRK 101.5 million (€13.5m), HRK 8.5 million (€1.1m) less than the election held in 2016, as a result of savings made on allowances for the work of election bodies following changes to tax rules. Material costs were nearly HRK 2 million (€266,660) higher than in 2016 because of the costs of coronavirus protective gear and sanitiser for nearly 7,000 polling committees. The presidential…
Tuesday, 9 February 2021
Milanović: 'So-called' Gender Equality Ombudswoman Not Doing Her Job
ZAGREB, 9 February 2021 - President Zoran Milanović on Monday commented on Gender Equality Ombudswoman Višnja Ljubičić's criticism of his statements about sexual harassment, calling Ljubičić a "so-called ombudswoman" who is not doing her job. "After carefully pondering for two days, the so-called gender equality ombudswoman, known for sailing into the office for a second term just before the last parliamentary elections, spoke. In 2011 she sailed into the office for her first term during which she never made a statement," Milanović said in a Facebook post in response to Ljubičić's comment in which she criticised him for his statements about…
Tuesday, 9 February 2021
MP Says Motion for Anti-Abortion Law Signed by Only 10 MPs
ZAGREB, 9 February 2021 - The leader of the Croatian Sovereignists party, MP Hrvoje Zekanović, said on Monday that his motion for the parliament to discuss their proposal for a law on protection of life had been supported by only ten MPs, the required number being 30. Speaking to reporters in Split, where he announced that his party would have a mayoral candidate in local elections to be held in May, Zekanović said that his proposal for the parliament to discuss a bill on protection of life was supported by himself and three other Croatian Sovereignists MPs - Željko Sačić, Marijan Pavliček and Marko…
Sunday, 7 February 2021
Damir Vanđelić: Prime Minister is Not Angry with Me
ZAGREB, 7 February, 2021 - The acting director of the Post-Earthquake Reconstruction Fund, Damir Vađelić, said on Sunday he did not think Prime Minister Andrej Plenković was angry at him because he had refused to be the HDZ's candidate for Mayor of Zagreb, adding that he would be surprised if the prime minister removed him from the Fund's helm. "I would be surprised. I absolutely don't think that the prime minister is angry wit me at all. Considering the amount of questions heaped upon him, I don't think that had anything to do with me. I think our relationship is…
Sunday, 7 February 2021
President Milanović Responds to Criticism from Women's Rights Organisation
ZAGREB, 7 February, 2021 - President Zoran Milanović has responded to criticism from the B.A.B.E. women's rights organisation over his statement about sexual harassment of actresses, saying that he stands by what he said and that society does not need dogmas from organisations that do not tolerate different opinions. "I said, and I stand by it, that we have a problem that needs discussing and that women, victims of sexual harassment, should be encouraged to expose anyone, especially bullies who do such things from the position of power. What we do not need are dogmas from associations that do not…
Sunday, 7 February 2021
Sabo Ready to Run for Vukovar Mayor as Independent Candidate
ZAGREB, 6 February, 2021 - Željko Sabo, who was the mayor of the City of Vukovar from 2009 to 2014 as a Social Democratic Party (SDP) official, said on Saturday that he was ready to enter the Vukovar mayoral race as an independent candidate after the SDP leadership had ousted him from the party. Recently, the committee of the SDP branch in Vukovar unanimously supported Sabo as the party's mayoral candidate in that eastern Croatian city, thus defying the SDP leadership's suggestion that Sabo should not be nominated for that candidacy. After the SDP main committee earlier in the day decided by…
Sunday, 7 February 2021
Croatian Fighter Jet Saga Continues, Decision Coming Soon?
February the 7th, 2021 - The Croatian fighter jet saga is becoming about as old and worn out as the Croatian coronavirus measures saga, but could a decision soon be made? As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the announcement of the Croatian Government about who the winner of the tender for the procurement of a multi-role fighter aircraft is has been postponed once again. However, as has been circulating, this is short-term and there is no mention that the recently completed tender could fail, according to a report from Vecernji list. On the eve of the vote in Parliament on the law…
Saturday, 6 February 2021
Sabo Ousted from SDP, Grbin Says Party Needs Clean Start for Local Polls
ZAGREB, 6 February, 2021 - The Social Democratic Party (SDP) Main Committee on Saturday ousted a long-standing party official and a former Vukovar Mayor, Željko Sabo, after he had defied the leadership's suggestion that he should not be the SDP mayoral candidate in Vukovar. After the committee's five-hour-long meeting, at which also the SDP branch in the City of Zagreb was dissolved, the party's leader Peđa Grbin, told the press that "today's decisions were necessary," and added that the SDP would like to have a clean start for the local elections which Croatia is expected to hold in May. Grbin…
