Politics

December the 16th, 2019 - Here is the lowdown on how Croatia will protect its British residents, deal or no deal. Brits in Croatia will need to act in the case of a no deal Brexit in order to be protected by Article 75 of the Law on EEA nationals, and will be protected by the withdrawal agreement in the case of a Brexit deal. Conservative party leader Boris Johnson won a majority in the recent UK general election, making leaving the EU with a deal on the 31st of January, 2020 (providing that the exit date isn't extended once again)…

The incumbent Croatian president has accepted the HRT invitation to debate with the other presidential candidates. We have learned that HDZ candidate, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, will nevertheless come face to face with the other presidential candidates in a debate, which is being coordinated by HRT (Croatian Radio Television) tomorrow night December 17, 2019 at 21:05h. Grabar-Kitarović confirmed the news and stated that "each candidate who has collected 10 thousand signatures must have an equal opportunity and no one should be underestimated or favored before the first election round takes place." All Eleven Croatian Candidates Expected to Attend According to unofficial reports,…

ZAGREB, December 16, 2019 - Less than seven million kuna was spent on election campaigning of the 11 presidential candidates until this weekend, the State Election Commission (DIP) reported on Monday, six days before the presidential vote on 22 December. The incumbent president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, who is running for her second term, reported that the outlays for her campaign came to 2.75 million kuna so far. Independent candidate, Miroslav Škoro, perceived as a candidate of right-wing anti-establishment movements, has spent 2.24 million kuna, while Zoran Milanović, the candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and a few more left opposition…

According to Croatian President, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, she has agreements with several countries which will enable Croatians to go elsewhere for training and then return home and work online. By working online, they will earn eight thousand euros in Croatia. She also emphasized, during a campaign rally in Osijek, that the December 22nd presidential election is particularly important because we will be choosing a policy that will promote Croatian national and state interests, and the president will be working to resolve critical social problems over the next five years. Croatians Must Think About Direction of Country Grabar-Kitarović, Croatian president and HDZ (Croatian…

ZAGREB, December 15, 2019 - President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović said at an election rally in Slavonski Brod that during her current term she had helped solve the problem of air pollution in Slavonski Brod and that she was helping the government deal with the situation in the ailing Đuro Đaković mechanical engineering group. Grabar-Kitarović said that the problem of air pollution in Slavonski Brod, caused by a Russian-owned oil refinery in the northern Bosnia and Herzegovina town of Bosanski Brod, across the Sava River, was solved in talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. "Đuro Đaković is of special importance for Croatia.…

ZAGREB, December 15, 2019 - Presidential candidate Miroslav Škoro on Saturday held an election rally in Split, at which he called on voters not to cast their ballots for Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović and Zoran Milanović because "they are two faces of the same system". "A vote for Miroslav Škoro is a vote for the people, and if you vote for Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović or Zoran Milanović, it does not make a difference - you vote for Andrej Plenković," Škoro said. In a comment on Grabar-Kitarović, he said that she was boasting about her platform and that, if he had been the president…

ZAGREB, December 15, 2019 - The Islamic Community in Karlovac on Saturday organised a get-together and lunch for ten Syrian asylum-seeking families, and the event was also attended by representatives of organisations that help the asylum-seekers in the process of social integration, notably the International Organisation for Migrations and the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS). Janko Gredelj of the JRS said that the path of integration was not easy. Asylum-seekers have to continue learning the Croatian language intensively, a process that began at the reception centre for asylum-seekers in Kutina, so that they can prepare for employment and become independent and…

ZAGREB, December 14, 2019 - The presidential candidate of the Workers' Front and the Socialist Workers' Party (SRP), Katarina Peović, said during a walkabout in the northern Adriatic city of Pula on Saturday that the needs of all people could be satisfied only by the 21st century democratic Socialism. "During the ongoing election campaign, all the other presidential candidates have given a more or less similar statement that it only takes to stamp out and eradicate corruption and let the free market operate," Peović said, stressing that unlike other candidates, she believed that the free market was a big problem.…

ZAGREB, December 14, 2019 - Croatia is making strong progress in meeting all the criteria for the US Visa Waiver Programme, Croatian Interior Minister Davor Božinović, who is on a visit to Washington this week, said on Friday. The minister said Croatia had managed to reduce the number of declined visa requests from 5.9 percent to 4.02 percent. Under the US law, the percentage of declined visa requests exceeding three percent makes it impossible for a country to be admitted to the USA's Visa Waiver Program (VWP). Once this percentage goes below that threshold, talks about cancelling visa requirements can…

ZAGREB, December 14, 2019 - The Social Democratic Party's presidential candidate, Zoran Milanović, said in Ogulin on Friday that Croatia should think carefully before introducing the euro because if it does it, it will lose its national currency for good "and the kuna is what it is, but it is ours." "Several countries that have been members of the EU for quite some time have not joined the euro area - the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary. A housing loan in Greece, which has introduced the euro, is more expensive than at Zagrebačka Banka, where housing loans are more expensive…