Politics

ZAGREB, January 8, 2020 - Prime Minister and Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) leader Andrej Plenković said on Tuesday evening that the direction taken by the party had been supported "in unison" by the presidency and the national committee during their four-hour meeting in Zagreb at which they discussed the presidential runoff outcome. In Sunday's second round of the election, the incumbent president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, nominated by the ruling HDZ for her second term, was defeated by challenger Zoran Milanović, the candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and a few more opposition left parties. "We must see the reasons for…

ZAGREB, January 7, 2020 - Parliament Speaker and HDZ secretary-general Gordan Jandroković confirmed on Tuesday that the party leadership would meet on Tuesday afternoon to analyse reasons for the defeat in the January 5 presidential runoff, noting that "unlike the meeting of (today's) parliamentary Presidency, that meeting will not be calm." "We will analyse what was crucial for the defeat but we will first discuss it at the session of the HDZ Presidency and then in public," Jandroković told reporters after a brief session of the Parliament's Presidency. Asked if there would be intraparty sanctions over wrong moves during Grabar-Kitarović's…

ZAGREB, January 7, 2020 - President-elect Zoran Milanović said on Tuesday in his first public address after Sunday's election that he had spoken with Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and incumbent President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović as well as other officials from Croatia, Europe and the rest of the world, who congratulated him on his election as Croatia's president. "Both (PM Plenković) and Mrs Kitarović phoned me. I spent the day yesterday responding to messages of congratulation, talking to people from Croatia, Europe and the rest of the world," Milanovic told reporters outside his home. He also commented on PM Plenković's statement that…

ZAGREB, January 7, 2020 - French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday ahead of his meeting with Prime Minister Andrej Plenković in Paris that he wished the summit meeting, set for May in Zagreb, would be successful and that changes to the methodology in the negotiation process was a precondition for opening negotiations with candidate countries. "I share your endeavours that the summit in Zagreb in May achieves unity and that it is a success for Europe. France has proposed a new method for the enlargement process so that it is not just a bureaucratic process but a truly political…

ZAGREB, January 7, 2020 - Citizens are spending less and less time visiting MPs' personal websites, and only seven out of 151 MPs had around a thousand hits in 2019, including Sonja Čikotić of MOST, data on the website of the Croatian Parliament show. Among the above-mentioned group are five HDZ MPs: Branko Bačić, Tomislav Sokol, Marijan Kustić, Stevo Culej and Josip Đakić. They are joined by Ivan Pernar (SIP). In comparison to previous years, a thousand hits is a rather modest number. For example, in the first half of 2018, when the favourites were Goran Aleksić (SNAGA), independent Marko…

ZAGREB, January 7, 2020 - Slovenian President Borut Pahor said on Monday that he did not believe that Croatia's president-elect Zoran Milanović would change his opinion on the arbitration ruling on the two countries' border dispute, however, Pahor, promises to "give chance to dialogue" at the start of their relations as two presidents. Pahor told reporters in Ljubljana that he had telephoned the newly-elected Croatian president to congratulate him on winning the election on Sunday, and also added that he accepted the invitation to attend Milanović's inauguration in Zagreb in a few weeks' time. While Milanović served as Croatia's prime…

ZAGREB, January 7, 2020 - Commenting on the defeat of his HDZ party's presidential candidate Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović and turmoil in the ruling party, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Monday that party bodies would analyse what had happened in the presidential election, dismissing as absolute nonsense accusations against him coming from the far right. Plenković, who is on an official visit to France, said that many people had done their best to prevent the HDZ from repeating its success of five years ago. "We will have to open some topics that have been hanging in the air for quite a…

ZAGREB, January 7, 2020 - The Serb People's Council (SNV) leader, Boris Milošević, said at a Christmas reception in Zagreb on Monday that 2019 had been marked by many ethnically motivated attacks against Serbs in Croatia, and therefore the society needed messages of peace and tolerance. During the reception on Christmas Eve according to the Julian calendar, Milošević said that the attacks started with an assault on players of Serbian water polo club Red Star in Split in mid-February. He recalled an attack against seasonal workers in the town of Supetar on the island of Brač in June and then…

ZAGREB, January 6, 2020 - Independent Democratic Serbian Party (SDSS) Milorad Pupovac has said that it is less important how he will cooperate with the newly elected Croatian president than what cooperation will look like between Zoran Milanović and the current government. That is of great importance and need for Croatia, said Pupovac on Monday, expressing hope that he shares the feeling of the majority of Croatian citizens considering the messages sent by the president-elect Milanović and incumbent president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović upon the completion of the presidential runoff on Sunday evening when they called for dialogue and understanding. That means,…

Just like TCN's owner, Paul Bradbury, I too am very interested in statistics and the numbers that appeared after the elections like yesterday's Croatian runoff of the presidential elections 2020. But, unlike Paul, who was aiming to analyse the big picture of what the data was telling us about Croatian politics and the population, I was looking for the weird and the bizarre. It started yesterday evening when I was browsing around Croatia, looking at the State Electoral Commission site and the results that were shown there as the votes were counted. One of the things I noticed was that…