Politics

ZAGREB, December 29, 2019 - Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina have very good relations despite occasional miscommunication, Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić Radman said in Sarajevo on Saturday, adding that Croatia would show it supported BiH during its EU presidency in the first half of 2020. He met with BiH's new Foreign Minister Bisera Turković. Speaking to the press, he said that as a co-signatory of the Dayton peace agreement, Croatia supported BiH's territorial integrity and sovereignty as well as the equality of its constituent peoples. He said that during its EU presidency Croatia would be a resolute advocate of…

What follows is a review of events in Croatian politics in 2019, as reported by TCN. If you would like to refresh your memory about the events which has led us here, read the reviews for the three previous years (2016, 2017, 2018). The year started with a high-profile failure by the government. Months after it was announced that Croatia would buy used Israeli F-16 fighter planes, the US government vetoed the sale and the whole project fell through. Despite earlier warnings from experts that the deal was in question, ministers continued to claim that everything was alight. However, after…

ZAGREB, December 28, 2019 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Friday that in January Croatia would dynamically embark on the presidency of the European Union, including meetings with leading European officials and the European Commission. "Already in the week starting January 7, we will have a very intensive and dynamic course of events," he said at the last cabinet meeting this year. On January 7, Plenković is going to Paris for consultations with French President Emmanuel Macron, European Council President Charles Michel is arriving in Zagreb two days later, and the European Commission will convene in Zagreb on the…

ZAGREB, December 28, 2019 - The presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party and a group of other centre-left parties, Zoran Milanović, held an election rally in the eastern city of Osijek on Friday, saying he hoped he would attract more voters than her rival, the incumbent president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, in the January 5 runoff. "It will be very tight and uncertain until the very end. I will need every vote and every piece of trust people can give me, which I believe will make my victory realistic and attainable," Milanović told reporters in the city's main square. Asked how…

ZAGREB, December 28, 2019 - The incumbent President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović held an election rally in Karlovac on Friday, her first since the December 22 election when she made it into the second round of the presidential election, scheduled for January 5 when she faces off former Social Democrat prime minister Zoran Milanović. Grabar-Kitarović said she had chosen Karlovac as the starting point of her campaign for the second round because it had been "a fortress of Croatianness" for ages and "an HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union) fortress" since the time of the first president of independent Croatia, Franjo Tuđman. She thanked…

ZAGREB, December 23, 2019 - Presidential candidate Zoran Milanović on Monday called on all national television stations to organise a joint telecast of a presidential debate ahead of the second round of the presidential election. "A debate is more than necessary. In respect of citizens and the interest by all national television (stations) that wish to organise a debate between the presidential candidates, I recommend that they agree and organise a joint debate ahead of the second round of the election," Milanović posted on his Facebook profile. The Social Democratic Party (SDP)-backed candidate says that he is ready to answer…

ZAGREB, December 23, 2019 - Ministers from the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) quota in the government on Monday expressed confidence that incumbent President and HDZ presidential candidate Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović would win the second round of the presidential vote set for January 5. Finance Minister Zdravko Marić said he expected Grabar-Kitarović to win in the runoff, and in a comment on the first round of the vote, he said that vote dispersion had occurred between two right-wing camps. "In the first round the fact that there were two candidates on the right side of the political spectrum has caused a dispersion…

Ever since Croatia joined the European Union (EU) back in July 2013, the number of Croats in Ireland, as well as other EU countries, has soared. Croats have used the opportunities of most of Europe's borders being opened to them. Upon joining, Croatia entered the single market and gained access to the majority of the labour markets of individual European Union member states, with the initial exception of a few, the respective barriers of which have now also been dropped for Croatian citizens.  In addition to Germany, Ireland has also been a favourite for Croats to emigrate to, often quickly…

ZAGREB, December 23, 2019 - Independent candidate Miroslav Škoro, who came third in the Croatian presidential election's first round on Sunday, extended his congratulations to the first two vote-getters – Zoran Milanović and Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović – adding that he would work on "giving Croatia back to the people". He thus hinted at his participation in the next parliamentary election. Škoro, who won 461,448 ballots or 24.44% of the vote, said in his address in his campaign headquarters that they had accomplished a miracle. "We have achieved a historic result. Nobody has given us such chances." Škoro said. He also described…

ZAGREB, December 23, 2019 - President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, who is running for re-election in a second round against Zoran Milanović, called on Sunday on all voters to vote for her, notably those who supported Miroslav Škoro in today's first round of the presidential election. Grabar-Kitarović thanked everyone who voted today, saying they had shown that it was important that the president was elected by the people in a direct election. She congratulated the other candidates on their election results. She criticised Milanovic and called on those who voted for Škoro today to vote for her in the runoff. "I had…