Politics

ZAGREB, November 10, 2019 - Presidential candidate Mislav Kolakušić said on Sunday that Croatians are apolitical and politically illiterate, and if he fails in the forthcoming presidential election, he will return to his duties as a member of the European Parliament. "Unfortunately, most Croatian citizens have chosen to be apolitical and consider it a very good move. Well, my dear citizens, whether your family lives as they do in Norway or in the poorest African country is decided by politics and you decide who runs politics," Kolakušić, a former judge at the Zagreb Commercial Court, said in an interview with…

ZAGREB, November 10, 2019 - Following media reports that the Presidency of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party has decided to sanction party members who use hate speech on social media, make threats or criticise the HDZ leadership, HDZ MP Davor Ivo Stier said that freedom and secrecy of correspondence are guaranteed and inviolable and called on his colleagues not to be afraid. "After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Croatian people rejected Communism and reaffirmed their centuries-long desire for independence in the democratic elections of 1990, as written in the Constitution. That's why in the Croatian Parliament…

ZAGREB, November 10, 2019 - A ceremony commemorating Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass, and the Nazi pogrom of Jews in Germany and Austria on 9 November 1938 was held in Zagreb's Square of Victims of Fascism on Saturday evening, organised by the Croatian Antifascist League. Addressing those gathered, the head of the coordinating committee of the Jewish communities in Croatia, Ognjen Kraus, said: "We are here to remember the Night of Broken Glass, to pay tribute to the victims of racial laws, not to allow equating Ustashism with antifascism, and to warn of the danger of xenophobia and…

ZAGREB, November 10, 2019 - Zlatko Hasanbegović, an independent member of the Croatian Parliament, in Zagreb on Saturday founded a new political party, called the Bloc for Croatia, saying that the party would initiate creation of a firm bloc without which it would not be possible to form a new government after the next parliamentary election. Addressing about 100 participants at the founding meeting of the new party, Hasanbegović said that the foundation of the Bloc for Croatia was an epilogue to the events of July this year when the Independents for Croatia party, of which he was the political…

ZAGREB, November 9, 2019 - Former HDZ leader Tomislav Karamarko on Saturday posted a message on his Facebook wall indicating that he could run again for party president in elections to be held in the spring of 2020. At the end of a lengthy post on the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the former HDZ leader says: "P.S. As far as I'm concerned, I continue destroying 'the antifascist defence wall'. See you at party elections!" Judging by statements they have given so far, other possible rivals to HDZ leader Andrej Plenković at the party elections are…

ZAGREB, November 9, 2019 - The candidate for the president of Croatia of the opposition Social Democratic Party (SDP) and 12 other liberal-left parties, Zoran Milanović, said at a motivational rally in Zagreb on Saturday that if elected president, he would be a supreme defender of the rights of Croatia and its citizens. "My strongest weapon will be my speech. That is what the president has, and if he does not - nothing can help him, particularly not greater powers. I will be a sort of supreme defender of the rights of Croatia, its people and citizens, even though the…

ZAGREB, November 9, 2019 - Public Administration Minister Ivan Malenica has announced that a bill on the 2021 census, which has been put up for public consultation, also envisages the electronic collection of data, apart from census takers who will collect data in the field. This will be the first time for Croatia to conduct a population census by census takers and also to have an e-census conducted simultaneously. "The draft act is currently being discussed. We will see what the next steps could be," Malenica said. The electronic collection of data is expected to be conducted from 1 to…

ZAGREB, November 9, 2019 - Croatia's Interior Ministry on Friday said in a press release that a report released by the Human Rights Watch (HRW) organisation consisted of very general claims about the alleged inhumane treatment of migrants by the local police and that it does not contain any concrete evidence. "It is important to take into consideration that migrants, who are prevented from entering Croatia by police officers or other procedures have been undertaken for their readmission to the country from which they entered illegally, often falsely accuse police officers of violence, in the hope that these accusations will…

ZAGREB, November 8, 2019 - Croatia on Friday protested to Serbian authorities over a monument commemorating a Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) general who led the attack on Vukovar in 1991 and called on Belgrade to stop glorifying war crimes. The memorial plaque to Mladen Bratić, commander of JNA and Serbian para-miltiary forces during the attack on Vukovar, was unveiled in a Serbian army complex in the northern city of Novi Sad on Friday. Bratić was killed on 2 November 1991 at Borovo Naselje, a suburb of the eastern Croatian town of Vukovar which was occupied by Serbian forces on 18…

ZAGREB, November 8, 2019 - Western Balkan countries, aspiring for European Union membership, are putting their hopes in Croatia's presidency of the Council of the EU in the first half of 2020, and are hoping that North Macedonia and Albania will be given a greenlight for opening accession talks before the Zagreb summit in May. These hopes were expressed at a meeting on the European prospects of southeastern European countries in Geneva on Friday. The meeting, organised by the World Economic Forum (WEF), brought together heads of state or government and ministers from Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia…