Politics

ZAGREB, August 11, 2019 - The latest findings of the Eurobarometer show that in the European Union, the Croatians have the lowest trust in state institutions. Only 13% of the Croatians covered by surveys conducted for Spring 2019 Standard Eurobarometer trust the government and the parliament, and the next to the last is Britain, where citizens' trust in state institutions has been affected by the developments surrounding the Brexit. Only 19% of U.K. citizens place confidence in the country's authorities. Throughout the European Union trust in EU remains higher than trust in national governments or parliaments and is at its…

In Croatia, one forgotten parasitic socialist relic has remained, and that is politicians holidaying in state residences, at least according to one of Croatia's singers-turned-presidential candidates, Miroslav Škoro. As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 11th of August, 2019, the presidential candidate pointed out that Croatia's leading people within the government enjoy a handsome income and that they can pay for holidays anywhere, and that they don't need to be doing so in state residences. Presidential candidate Miroslav Škoro made the post on Facebook, aiming for the summer holidays of some of country's leading people, who often take such breaks in…

ZAGREB, August 11, 2019 - Presidential candidate Zoran Milanović said during a visit to the southern town of Metković on Saturday that President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović's possibly calling an extraordinary parliament session would set a precedent but that the president was the one to make a decision on the matter. The Office of the President said in a statement on Friday that with regard to a request sent to her by the Bridge party to call an extraordinary session of the parliament to discuss a vote of no confidence in Health Minister Milan Kujundžić, she would make a decision on the…

ZAGREB, August 10, 2019 - The Štajerska Guard, known as an anti-migrant paramilitary group in Slovenia led by a far-right politician, Andrej Šiško, has set up a camp near the town of Podčetrtak some 20 kilometres of the Slovenia-Croatia border, the Zagreb-based Jutarnji List daily reported on Saturday. The photographs of about 30 uniformed men, some of whom are masked, and of tents and weapons' replicas, which were published by the Ljubljana-based Delo newspaper, have caused alarm among Slovenian politicians and in the local society. The Croatian newspaper carries a statement of a Slovenian police official who has said that…

ZAGREB, August 10, 2019 - Constitutional Court President Miroslav Šeparović said on Friday that he was surprised by President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović's response to the MOST party's request to call an extraordinary session of the parliament to discuss a vote of no confidence in Health Minister Milan Kujundžić. The Office of the President said earlier in the day that President Grabar-Kitarović would make a decision on MOST's request if the Constitutional Court ruled that conditions for such a move had been created. "If the Constitutional Court decides that conditions have been created for the parliament speaker to call an extraordinary session…

ZAGREB, August 9, 2019 Political analysts Davor Gjenero and Žarko Puhovski have described President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović's decision to announce her candidacy for a second term in office in the Hrvatski Tjednik weekly as "a very odd and panicky decision" and "an attempt to solicit support from the right-wing electorate." In an interview with the weekly, which the analysts consider to be a newspaper of the far-right, President Grabar-Kitarović announced that she would run for president for the second time. Political analyst Davor Gjenero told Hina on Friday that Grabar-Kitarović's decision to give an interview to a media outlet such as…

ZAGREB, August 9, 2019 - The Office of President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović said in a statement on Friday that with regard to a request sent to her by the MOST party to call an extraordinary session of the parliament to discuss a vote of no confidence in Health Minister Milan Kujundžić, she would make a decision on the request if the Constitutional Court ruled that conditions for such a move had been created. "If the Constitutional Court decides that conditions have been created for the parliament speaker to call an extraordinary session of the parliament and if the parliament speaker fails…

ZAGREB, August 9, 2019 - The Social Democratic Party (SDP) leader Davor Bernardić and official Mirela Holy on Friday presented the plan of this opposition party for the complete legalisation of the use of hemp, which they said would contribute to the economic growth and development of agriculture and tourism in Croatia. "We hold that the liberalisation and legalisation, controlled by the state, would make an additional impetus to economic growth, and the revenues earned this way could be used for creation of new jobs," the leader of the strongest opposition party told a news conference in Zagreb. He said…

ZAGREB, August 9, 2019 - President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović said in an interview with the Croatian weekly newspaper "Hrvatski Tjednik" that she would soon formally announce her candidacy for the second term. "Of course, I will rerun for the presidency. I will soon announce it," the president says in the interview published on Thursday. She said that she did not want to turn her back on Croatia now and that therefore she would not accept offers for more lucrative jobs abroad. " I do not want to leave my Croatian people and my own children who see their future here." She…

August the 8th, 2019 - I've written a series of articles on what Brexit means for British citizens in Croatia, but with Boris Johnson now resident at Number 10 (for now), the threat of a no deal Brexit might tragically become a reality if parliament doesn't find a way to block it. Political views and basic sanity aside, let's have a look at what this unwanted outcome will look like, and what effects it will have on Croatia's British residents. As I wrote in my last article on the matter, Croatia has vowed to protect its British residents regardless of…