Politics

ZAGREB, January 4, 2020 - Croatia's Foreign and European Affairs Ministry on Friday called for defusing the situation in Iraq and the Middle East following the killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in an airstrike in Iraq, which has prompted Iran to threaten reciprocal actions. "The Republic of Croatia is closely following with deep concern the developments in Iraq and in the entire Middle East," the ministry says in a press release. We call for calming the situation and urge restraint from the use of force and we also advocate the investment of additional efforts in seeking a diplomatic solution…

ZAGREB, January 3, 2020 - From the beginning of its term on 19 October 2016 to this day, the Government chaired by Prime Minister Andrej Plenković has held exactly 200 cabinet meetings, introducing 6,744 regulations and decisions from its remit, including 983 bills, according to data released by the government on Friday. There were 24 conference calls, and 11 cabinet meetings were held outside Zagreb, that is in other Croatian towns. The cabinet meetings lasted for 216 hours and 42 minutes in total, and 4,275 items of the agenda were discussed. Of 983 bills sponsored by the government, 348 have…

ZAGREB, January 3, 2020 - The government on Friday adopted a report on the state and functioning of prisons and the correctional system in 2018. Croatia has 14 prisons, seven correctional facilities and two juvenile correctional facilities with a total capacity of 3,900 prisoners. Over 11,000 prisoners passed through the prison system in 2018, Justice Minister Dražen Bošnjaković said while presenting the report. A total of 4,119 prisoners were serving prison terms, over 4,000 were held in investigative custody, while the others were held in connection with minor offences. "It is important to note that these 11,000 prisoners were subjected…

On Thursday evening January 2, 2020; HRT (Croatia Radio Television) moderated the second of three debates between presidential candidates Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović and former Prime Minister Zoran Milanović. During the two-hour debate, the candidates answered 40 questions – which were divided into several groups including the economy and demographics, foreign policy and presidential powers, national security and the fight against corruption. Of course, there was a set of questions pertaining to worldviews and personal questions, as reported by Index on January 2, 2020. Here are a few highlights from last night’s debate: Candidates’ Opening Statements: Milanović: I am aware that…

ZAGREB, January 3, 2020 - The centre-left government in Spain on Thursday wished Croatia good luck during its six-month presidency of the European Union, noting that in that period work will be done to strengthen the EU. Spain and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs "wish good luck to Croatia, which for the first time ever holds the presidency of the EUCouncil in 2020. The work of the EU2020HR will be guided by the slogan ‘A strong Europe in a world of challenges’," the ministry tweeted. On Wednesday, Croatia assumed the presidency of the bloc of 28 countries for the first…

ZAGREB, January 3, 2020 - The European budget will be the most important political topic of Croatia's Council of the European Union presidency because it will impact all the polices of the 27-member bloc, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Thursday, adding that he expected "an appropriate compromise" to be reached. Aside from the other four priorities of the Croatian presidency - a Europe that grows and develops, a Europe that connects and a Europe that is secure and influential globally - Plenković also singled out "the concrete, big political topics that will attract a lot of media attention and…

ZAGREB, January 3, 2020 - After the Zhongya Nekretnine company failed to pay, within an extended deadline, the remaining amount of money for the purchase of the building in the Croatian town of Kumrovec, which used to house a Communist political school and is now the Hotel Zagorje, the company stated on Thursday that it hadn't given up this acquisition. The company said in a press release that partners of the investor, Mrs. Jiang Yu, had not managed to allocate the money within the set deadline, for technical reasons. They are seeking models to transfer the required amount to Croatia…

ZAGREB, January 2, 2020 - The GONG election monitoring NGO on Thursday called on the government to enable elderly and ill citizens to exercise their electoral right by amending the legislation whereby polling booths can be set up in all hospitals and retirement homes as well as organising the possibility of voting from home for disabled citizens. "We call on the government to urgently resolve the problem of discrimination against voters who are not able to access polling stations and to better regulate voting at special polling stations, by introducing regulations regarding various ways of facilitating the voting process as…

ZAGREB, January 2, 2020 - The chairman of Bosnia and Herzegovina's House of Representatives, Denis Zvizdić, on Thursday wrote in his letter of congratulations to Zagreb on Croatia's presidency of the European Union that he expected Zagreb to "promote in a proper way" the progress made by his country on its European journey. Zvizdić's letter sent to Sabor Speaker Gordan Jandroković and Prime Minister Andrej Plenković reads that Bosnia perceives Croatia's six-month rotating presidency as a period of strong promotion of the importance of the project of the EU enlargement to the Western Balkans. Zvizdić writes that the region of…

ZAGREB, January 2, 2020 - As many as 70,000 eligible voters will be outside Croatia on their skiing holidays on 5 January when the country holds a presidential runoff election and only 5,095 of them have registered themselves for voting outside their place of residence, the Jutarnji List daily said in its issue on Thursday. The data about the number of Croatian skiers outside the country on 5 January was collected from travel agencies that organise winter travel arrangements. They show that about 110,000 Croatians could be on their skiing holidays next weekend, and of them a third are underage…