ZAGREB, January 6, 2020 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković congratulated Zoran Milanović on winning the presidential election on Sunday, saying he expected a hard cohabitation in accordance with the constitution and law.

"I congratulate Zoran Milanović on winning the trust of the majority of the Croatian electorate in the second round of the presidential election and wish him success in his work. We will work together in accordance with our constitutional powers and the law," Plenković told the press after Milanović, the candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and several other centre-left parties, won the runoff election against the incumbent president and candidate of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović.

He added that he would call Milanović to congratulate him on his victory.

Plenković thanked Grabar-Kitarović for her five years in office and her commitment to working for the benefit of Croatia and all its people, strengthening the country's international standing and ensuring the harmonious functioning of all institutions of the state.

He also thanked all HDZ members who had done their best in the campaign so that Grabar-Kitarović would win a second term, as well as all partner parties and their voters for their support to the outgoing president.

Asked if the result of the vote was also a message to him, Plenković said that the HDZ would analyse the election results and why their candidate lost. He said that there were several reasons, recalling that he had said during the campaign in the run-up to the first round that every vote from the right side of the political spectrum that went to Miroslav Škoro, a singer-turned-politician backed by right-wing anti-establishment parties, was a vote for Milanović.

He also mentioned the fact that 4.6 percent of votes in the runoff were declared invalid, adding that this was a huge number. "When people give instructions on how to vote in the second round, they are expected to be mature and responsible. Those were not mature messages," he said alluding to Škoro.

Asked if the HDZ would now go more to the right to win back Škoro's voters, Plenković said that no one owned voters. "Our citizens are smart, wise and responsible, and what is important in every election competition, they should get informed and not fall for sugarcoated lies that abound in politics."

As for pretenders to his position as the HDZ leader, Plenković said that "it is a good position and there are many who crave for it." Asked to comment on the statement by his deputy Milijan Brkić that he would run for the HDZ leadership, Plenković said he respected everyone's ambition and that anyone who wanted to run should do so.

Plenković said that in the three years of his term they had done a lot for the HDZ and its membership, modernising the party and consolidating it financially.

Asked if a grand coalition with the SDP was possible for the next parliamentary election, due this autumn, Plenković said he would do all he could to ensure that the HDZ won the parliamentary election again.

More news about the presidential elections can be found in the Politics section.

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 been adjusted to the EU aquis and this cabinet has to date proposed 8 state budgets.

At the government's proposal, the Croatian Parliament has passed 641 laws, 181 of which refer to the adjustment of the national legislature to EU laws, and there was 87 international treaties and agreements ratified.

The government has responded to 6 interpellations, as well as to 466 questions submitted by members of parliament. It referred 46 documents to the Constitutional Court, and 19 documents to the Administrative Court.

More politics news can be found in the dedicated section.

ZAGREB, December 31, 2019 - The European Union has to face the existential problem of population decline affecting several member countries, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković warned in an interview with the Financial Times.

In the interview published on Monday on the Financial Times' web site, Plenković said that Croatia and other countries were grappling with a shrinking population because of low birth rates and emigration to more prosperous regions.

The population of 10 of the 28 EU member states grew smaller in 2018, including Croatia, Latvia, Bulgaria and Romania.

"This is a structural, almost an existential problem for some nations, and we are not the only one,” Plenković told the Financial Times.

“We are losing a city of 15,000, 16,000 people per year just by the fact that we have 15,000, 16,000 more deaths than births. For a country of around 4m, that is a lot, right? Plus we have freedom of movement now,” added Plenković.

The EU's newest member is the fifth-fastest shrinking country in the world, and is set to lose 17 per cent of its 2017 population by 2050, according to the UN, the FT reported.

Lower birth rates are one cause, but so is emigration. Between 2013, when Croatia joined the EU, and 2017, approximately 5 per cent of the country’s population moved to other member states, the FT says.

Croatia wants to put demographics at the heart of its agenda for the EU during its six-month presidency of the bloc starting in January. Zagreb also successfully pushed for its EU commissioner, Dubravka Šuica, to receive a portfolio dealing with democracy and demography.

Plenković wants Brussels to examine which countries are most affected and what policies and measures have been implemented to boost birth rates.

"We really did a lot in terms of demographic politics, tax, childcare, amounts of money that we give to parents for motherhood, etc — we are doing as much as we can. But I think we should do something at the European level," he said.

Here Croatia is about to step into a highly politically charged area. The loss of the UK as a contributor to the EU budget is contributing towards a tight settlement in the EU's next multi-annual budget.

Eastern European states are anxious to defend the cohesion budget as they seek funding for left-behind regions, even as western nations insist that more EU cash should be devoted to modern priorities including research and climate change.

"The union budget is a big budget — it is a seven-year budget and it has to really find ways to be forthcoming or provide answers to various challenges," said Plenković.

More news about Croatia and the EU can be found in the Politics section.

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 a meeting between high-ranking officials from the United States and Israel, the truth was revealed. Ministers lost their nerves and the government launched an immediate investigation, which expectedly ended without any real results, and also announced that it would re-start the process. To show its level of seriousness, it even established a commission! Twelve months later, the process of deciding which aircraft to buy still hasn't move any further on and is not expected to end for at least another year.

The migrant crisis continued to be in the news this year. The inflow of migrants over the borders with Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia increased somewhat, together with media coverage about alleged brutality of Croatian police and illegal pushbacks of migrants to Bosnia. The authorities were quick to deny everything, but the sheer number of documented cases makes it apparent that at least some of the allegations are founded.

Efforts to limit media freedoms continued this year and some reporters were even briefly arrested. Journalists, NGOs and international organisations stood up to these attempts, but the final score is still unknown.

Repression continued in other ways as well, with courts ruling that peaceful protesters should go to prison, Croatia's human rights situation being criticised from abroad, ethnically-motivated assaults (several of them) taking place, ombudswomen’s warnings not being heard, journalists receiving instructions from the president on what to do, and diplomats spreading hate...

Historical revisionism was in full force once again this year. As a result, representatives of Jews, Serbs and anti-fascist organisations once again boycotted the government’s annual commemoration at the site of the Jasenovac concentration camp.

European elections were held in May (with even Pamela Anderson giving recommendations to Croatian voters). While the ruling HDZ party had high hopes earlier in the year (and was supported by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who attended one of its rather controversial rallies in Zagreb), the actual results were much tighter and were interpreted by everyone as a success for the opposition (particularly SDP) and a disappointment for the government.

June brought us a few days of excitement when it seemed possible that prime minister Plenković might just succeed in his life-long dream of getting a top EU job. Despite denying he ever wanted such a thing, he was rumoured to be trying to become president of the European Commission (or president of the European Council, or perhaps something else). In the end, he had to return to Croatia empty handed, again denying his alleged attempts.

Unlike Plenković, foreign minister Marija Pejčinović-Burić was more successful in the area of career development. In June, she was elected secretary-general of the Council of Europe. She promptly resigned her post in Croatia and has not been heard about since. Another happy politician is Dubravka Šuica, who has been appointed Croatia’s commissioner in the European Commission.

Mostly good economic news continued. Public debt is at its lowest level in decades, the European Commission concluded that Croatia no longer suffered from excessive economic imbalances, and GDP growth is holding up.

One of the companies which was in the public focus this year was Croatia Airlines, Croatia’s national flag carrier. Its business results were dismal and the search for possible strategic partners was on, but without any real results. The government eventually decided to cover some of the debts, but as the year comes to and end, there is no long-term solution in sight. In the meantime, Zagreb Airport continues to lose airlines using its services.

The construction of an LNG terminal on the island of Krk has apparently started out with strong support from the US government, after many years of delays and announcements. The project is funded from the state budget, since there was no interest among anyone to actually use the terminal. The government claims that there will be interest once the terminal is built, but it would not be the first major government-funded project in Croatia’s history to fail to deliver on its promises.

The construction of Pelješac bridge continues to go at an even faster pace than expected (despite occasional Bosnian protests), mostly thanks to the efforts by the Chinese construction company which won the tender, which also brought about a marked improvement in the relations between Croatia and China. Unfortunately, the construction of the access roads leading up to the bridge has not progressed nearly as fast, with tenders being decided just several months ago. It is quite possible that, when the bridge is built, it will be unusable for a while because there will be no roads leading to it.

Emigration continues amid Croatia's demographic crisis, although somewhat slower than in previous years, probably as a result of the fact that most of those who could have left have already done so. The authorities talk about demographic revival, but nothing much has happened so far.

Political scandals were as numerous as ever. The regional development minister had an accident while driving without a driving license, the agriculture minister forgot to list all his assets on an official statement, the administration minister had his own scandals which were too numerous even to count, and the state assets minister had problems of his own. The Prime minister strongly supported his ministers before some of them resigned, and then he changed his mind and dismissed the rest of them.

The ruling coalition remained stable this year, despite occasional rumours of impending collapse. Ultimatums were rejected, resignations demanded, talks announced, decisions to stay in coalition made, threats given... Just the usual stuff.

As expected, the border dispute between Croatia and Slovenia has not been resolved this year. Slovenia was disappointed with the EU’s decision not to get involved in a dispute between its two members. The chances that this issue will feature in our review for 2020 are quite high.

In October, the European Commission announced that Croatia has fulfilled all the technical conditions to join the Schengen area. However, the final decision will require the unanimous support of all EU member states, and Slovenia does not seem ready to give its approval until the border dispute with Croatia is resolved. 

Another major project is the introduction of euro in Croatia. After a lot of talk, the government has finally sent an official request. The process will certainly take years and opinion is divided as to whether it is a good idea or not.

One of the highlights were the trade union's activities. Earlier in the year, the unions managed to collect enough signatures for a referendum against the government’s pension reform and an increase in the retirement age. The government capitulated and revoked already approved laws (although it previously warned that such a decision would be a disaster).

The other major trade union success was the primary and secondary school strike later in the year. After almost two months, the government capitulated and gave the unions more or less everything they had asked for.

One of the highlights of the next six months will be Croatia’s EU presidency. The government is promoting it as a great success, although all EU member states sooner or later get their chance to hold the rotating presidency. While Croatia's plans are ambitious, their delivery will probably be more modest.

The major event at the end of the year was the first round of Croatia's presidential elections.

While the post is largely ceremonial, elections are held every five years and still manage to occupy public attention for months. Three major candidates launched their bids: incumbent president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović (officially an independent candidate who in reality is HDZ), former SDP prime minister Zoran Milanović, and singer Miroslav Škoro, who presented himself as a candidate of change, despite having been an MP, a diplomat and a former HDZ member.

The first round was held on December 22. Zoran Milanović won with 29.6% of the vote, followed by Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović with 26.7%. Škoro was third with 24.5%. Milanović and Grabar-Kitarović will take part in the run-off on January 5.

ZAGREB, November 4, 2019 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandić said on Monday they were pleased with a meeting at which they had talked about the capital's zoning plan, but did not say if city councillors from Plenković's HDZ party would back the plan and MPs from Bandić's party the state budget.

"We agreed the process of adopting the zoning plan for the City of Zagreb. The mayor's associates briefed us on the procedure. It's an expert topic and they are considering every aspect of its compliance with the law and the plan in the Construction and Physical Planning Ministry," said Plenković.

Asked if the HDZ city councillors would back the plan if it was greenlit by the ministry, he said a decision would be adopted after an expert analysis was made.

He said the meeting discussed a score of projects important for the development of Zagreb, from those being implemented, worth more than 1.3 billion kuna, to future ones such as connecting the city and its airport, the Gredelj project, a children's hospital, the Institute of Immunology, and the Zagreb on the Sava River project.

Plenković said they also talked about the financing of the capital in the long term, calling the meeting useful and constructive.

Mayor Bandić said the government and the city were partners. "Responsibility and partnership are and will remain the cornerstone of our future work."

Asked by the press if there was a connection between the votes on Zagreb's zoning plan and the state budget, the mayor said: "Responsibility and partnership."

City Council president Drago Prgomet said big projects in Zagreb could not succeed if the government and the city were not partners.

More Zagreb news can be found in the Lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, October 12, 2019 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Friday the Conflict of Interest Commission did not make a unanimous decision today that he had breached the principle of conduct, and that it was a decision which damaged the Commission's image.

Speaking at a press conference, he said the decision was about the perception of three Commission members without a legal basis.

"Since I am deeply convinced that it's a decision which damages the Commission's image, and which also damages me a little in the media sphere, I think it's fair to hear the other side too," he said after the Commission decided by a majority vote that he had violated the principle of conscientious and transparent conduct by failing to declare that he was Igor Pokaz's best man when proposing him for the position of ambassador to the UK.

Plenković said Pokaz entered the Foreign Ministry in 1994 and that he was first appointed as ambassador, to NATO, ten years ago, followed by his appointment as ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2015.

When Pokaz was proposed for the position of ambassador to the UK, the decision on that was made by then Foreign Minister Marija Pejčinović Burić, President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, Prime Minister Plenković and the relevant parliamentary committee.

Plenković said that Pokaz had asked him to be his best man in 1999 and that this fact had not been relevant for his three diplomatic appointments.

More news about conflict of interest issues can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, October 8, 2019 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on Tuesday again expressed satisfaction that the Croatian candidate for a European Commission Vice President, Dubravka Šuica, had successfully passed a hearing before the relevant committees of the European Parliament, expressing confidence that she would also contribute to improving the status of persons with disabilities.

"Ms Šuica, who has always advocated the rights of vulnerable groups, will... make it possible for what is done at EU level to be of help at the national level," Plenković said in response to a question from members of the public visiting the parliament which opened its door to them on the occasion of Independence Day.

One of the topics to be dealt with by Šuica are persons with disabilities, Plenković said when asked by a citizen if Šuica's election would have an impact on the status of persons with disabilities.

The prime minister stressed that emigration was not only a problem in Croatia and that other EU member states, too, had encountered it in the first years of liberalisation of movement of their citizens, who were leaving for more developed EU countries.

"Those trends have been stabilising in Croatia, too, and there are no more mass emigration trends," the PM said, adding that emigration today was different from what it had been 100 or 150 years ago.

Citing measures his government had undertaken to stop emigration, he cited successful economic indicators - an increase in the average and minimum wages, a growth of pensions, a 3.1% economic growth and three record tourist seasons.

"The government has kickstarted economic growth, macroeconomic trends are good, we have the lowest unemployment rate and the highest employment rate, of 66%," he said, admitting that things could always be better.

He noted that the government would soon discuss an energy strategy and underlined that the education reform was one of the key instruments for job adaptation in the future.

Plenković confirmed being acquainted with the problem of unlawful logging, of which representatives of the Zeleni Odred (Green Squad) association spoke, criticising the government for not doing anything about it.

The PM said that unlawful logging was not happening with the government's consent.

Answering questions from members of the public, War Veterans Minister Tomo Medved repeated that shedding light on the fate of people gone missing in the 1991-95 war was a priority for the government and his ministry, adding that Croatia was still looking for 1,891 persons.

Numerous citizens asked questions of personal interest to them, from property-rights related issues to family issues, and were referred to the relevant ministries.

Speaker Gordan Jandroković agreed with citizens' objection that some members of parliament did not attend parliamentary sessions regularly, saying that some of them were justifiably absent and some were not. Unjustified absence is fined, but the worst penalty for any such member of parliament is not being re-elected, he said.

More politics news can be found in the dedicated section.

ZAGREB, September 6, 2019 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on Thursday commented on the decision by the Conflict of Interest Commission to launch proceedings against him over his failure to submit documents on his trip to Helsinki last year, saying that the Commission's action was unnecessary.

"This whole story is a fabrication with one purpose and goal - to cause political damage to me and the officials in question," the prime minister told the press outside the government headquarters.

He said that the Commission had no reason to take this action considering the documents which the government and his HDZ party had submitted to it, adding that initiating proceedings for a breach of office was unwarranted.

Plenković said that he as prime minister decides on the use of the government aircraft based on decisions taken by his chief of staff and that he decides on which people use the aircraft. He said that the government aircraft was used for travel to Finland on official business – to meet the Finnish prime minister and attend a conference of the European People's Party. Hotel accommodation costs and per diems for all the people involved were paid by the HDZ, he explained.

"What I'm saying was thoroughly and clearly explained in correspondence with the Commission. It's true and it's a fact, all else is an unnecessary fabrication," the prime minister said.

The press were shown a government report on the official trip indicating that the prime minister had forgone his per diems, that the accommodation costs had not been paid by the government and that there was no cost for the government.

The Commission launched the proceedings against Plenković, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior Davor Božinović, former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture Tomislav Tolušić, former Minister of Demography, Family, Youth and Social Policy Nada Murganić and former Administration Minister Lovro Kuščević because they have not submitted the necessary travel allowance documents to the relevant bodies regarding their attendance at the EPP conference in Helsinki in November last year.

Conflict of Interest Commission president Nataša Novaković on Thursday responded to Prime Minister Andrej Plenković's claims that proceedings against him and several ministers was based on fabrications, saying he had not treated this independent authority fairly.

"It's not fair to treat an independent body like that. Under the law, they have to submit documents. We have the right to request them, others have the duty to submit them without delay," Novakovic said on RTL TV.

Novakovic, however, said partial documentation was submitted "which is even contradictory... Not one travel request was submitted. We still don't know who was in the plane, who was in the government's official delegation."

She added that if everything was in order, there was not one reason not to submit all the documents requested by the Commission.

Asked if Plenković's statement about fabrications was an attack on the Commission, Novakovic said it was and that this was not the first case in which the Commission had requested travel requests.

Asked what could be expected of a new conflict of interest law, she said it seemed the government did not need the Commission. She added that the Commission had a constructive meeting with Public Administration Minister Ivan Malenica two weeks ago and that they agreed to examine together why the bill was "stuck" and what would happen with it.

"Every day there's a new allusion to our actions," she said, adding that the Commission was not fabricating or damaging anyone and that she did not know what repercussions this would have on the bill.

More news on the conflict of interest issues can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, September 5, 2019 - The Conflict of Interest Commission on Thursday launched proceedings against Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and several of his ministers for breaching public office and ignoring the Commission's request to submit documents related to trips to attend a European People's Party (EPP) conference in Helsinki.

The Commission launched the proceedings against Plenković, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior Davor Božinović, former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture Tomislav Tolušić, former Minister of Demography, Family, Youth and Social Policy Nada Murganić and former Administration Minister Lovro Kuščević because they have not submitted the necessary travel allowance documents to the relevant bodies regarding their attendance at the EPP conference in Helsinki in November last year.

The Commission's Chair Nataša Novaković said that the procedure was launched following a majority vote over a possible breach of public office and failure to submit the relevant documents to the Commission.

Prime Minister Plenković failed to instruct his chief of staff and the ministers in question failed to instruct the relevant services to submit the requested data and documents to the Commission, which gives rise to the possibility that "these officials did not act conscientiously, responsibly and transparently," Novaković said.

Novaković said that the procedure was not initiated because of the officials' trip to Helsinki.

More conflict of interest news can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, September 4, 2019 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Tuesday, regarding the possible departure of the Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) from the ruling coalition, that he would first like to hear that party's opinion.

Asked by reporters during a visit to Virovitica whether he had met with the head of the HVIDR disabled war veterans association, Josip Đakić, given that the HVIDR was insisting that the SDSS leave the coalition, Plenković said that they would discuss the matter, but that first he wanted to hear the opinion of the SDSS.

Plenković said it was inappropriate for the HVIDR to dictate who his HDZ party should form a coalition with. "This will be decided by the HDZ and its partners from the parliamentary majority," the prime minister told the press after a meeting of the Council for Slavonia, Baranja and Srijem. "We're not dictating others what to think or what messages they should send to the public," he added.

Asked if President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović had the full support of the HDZ organisations in the Slavonia region, given that independent presidential candidate Miroslav Škoro is popular there, Plenković said that she enjoyed the support of the entire HDZ. "I don't see who could bring that into question and how."

Plenković said that the settlement on the restructuring of the former Agrokor conglomerate must be honoured. "The settlement will certainly be honoured by the newly-formed Fortenova Group, and the obligation to pay the border debt, as agreed under the settlement, will be honoured," the PM said, adding that this was not questionable and that neither the Fortenova Group nor suppliers had doubts about it.

He said that it was important that the management and suppliers reach an agreement and that the government would help them agree on the pace of payments. He said that Economy Minister Darko Horvat was in talks with the management and suppliers and that he was sure that a solution would be found.

The meeting of the Council for Slavonia, Baranja and Srijem concluded with the signing of 17 agreements for development projects in the region, worth 233 million kuna (31.5 million euro).

Plenković said that the next Council meeting would be held in Vukovar in the autumn.

More political news can be found in the dedicated section.