ZAGREB, May 7, 2019 - The Ethics Commission on Tuesday issued a warning to the Živi Zid party and ordered it to remove without delay numerous 'hate' comments below two articles about migrants that incite hate and violence, and called on the party's members to publicly apologise for violating the election ethics code.

The commission determined that Živi Zid had violated the election ethics code because of the negative comments on the party's official Facebook profile below links to articles published by two web portals about migrants and that the party did not delete 'hate' comments or those inciting to violence.

The commission was referring to comments made following an article by the Teleskop.hr web portal about houses being broken into and crosses and property being destroyed by migrants. The RTL private TV station also ran a story about a married couple whose house was broken into by migrants while they were sleeping.

The Gong NGO that monitors election procedures submitted a complaint to the ethics commission about the contentious comments on the Živi Zid’s FB profile regarding the two stories.

The commission determined that by posting links to the two stories about migrants the Živi Zid knew that this would lead to negative comments which contained hate speech and, as such, acted irresponsibly and in contradiction of election ethical standards.

The commission added that it regrets that public space in Croatia is burdened with a low level of culture in communication and with rampant hate speech, particularly in Facebook comments on media reports. However, in the context of the election process, special responsibility lies on those participating in the election to promote a culture of dialogue and to prevent any form of hate speech and incitement to hate and violence, the Ethics Commission said.

More news about Živi Zid can be found in the Politics section.

The Možemo (We Can) left-wing political platform will participate in the upcoming elections for the European Parliament taking place in three weeks, and it has received praise from a somewhat unexpected supporter. The platform is grateful to US actress Pamela Anderson for supporting it ahead of the European elections, Tomislav Tomašević, one of the leaders of the platform, said on Sunday. He was commenting on a recent tweet by Pamela Anderson in which she mentioned Možemo, reports 24sata.hr on May 6, 2019.

“I have personally met her in 2012 while I was studying at Cambridge and she gave a lecture on climate change and animal rights,” added Tomašević.

Just two days ago, Pamela Anderson created a little bit of confusion when she tweeted: “My friend is watching the news in Croatia just now – images of one million people evacuated because of climate change.” The tweet raised a series of questions and prompted a lot of negative comments about how she mixed up Croatia and India, where the mass evacuations took place due to the weather. Anderson quickly explained herself and posted another tweet saying she meant India.

The news about the controversy raised by her tweets reached Pamela, which prompted her to explain what she really meant. “I heard my post about evacuation in India caused a little (luckily only) media ‘earthquake’ in Croatia: of course, I know where Croatia is. I’m not Trump who thinks Yugoslavia collapsed in the Baltics or Jeremy Hunt who thought Slovenia was a ‘Soviet vassal state’.”

In another tweet, she voiced her support to Možemo for the European elections. “Instead, let me surprise you with a Croatian word of hope (hint: European elections) – Možemo”, added Pamela Anderson.

More news about elections for the European Parliament can be found in the Politics section.

Translated from 24sata.hr (reported by Ivana Kovačić).

ZAGREB, May 5, 2019 - The MOST party leader Božo Petrov has said in an interview with Hina that the bureaucrats in Brussels are trying to transform the European Union into a super-state to the detriment of national identities.

Petrov, who is the top candidate of the MOST slate for the European Parliament elections which will be held in Croatia on 26 May, says that the candidates of his party will not be loyal to the European political families but to the Croatian cause, as defined in MOST's plank.

"I believe that the politicians who have so far led the European Union have tried to blot out the identities of the member-states while creating a uniform identity that would pave the way for a sort of super-state," Petrov says in the interview which Hina published on Sunday.

He also considers the growing popularity of Eurosceptic parties to be the response to this tendency.

"Creating a super-state is not the direction which should be taken, and therefore they are receiving the response they have received. I sincerely believe that the European political landscape will considerably change after these elections."

According to opinion polls, the MOST slate can count on one seat in the EP after the voting and Petrov, who is the top candidate, says he will not go to the EP but those MOST candidates who win the highest number of preferential votes.

The MOST has not joined any of European political groups and still does not want to reveal which of the parties may be its political partner in the EP.

Petrov says that Croatian members of the EP are supposed that fight for the interests of Croatia and its citizens rather than for the interests of "some European political family such as the European People's Party (EPP)."

He says that the 12 MOST candidates are homogeneous in interpreting what Croatian interests in accordance how they are defined in the party's programme. "We are not limited by the European ideological framework which some European families are trying to impose." He also says that "we can see a slow creeping federalisation of the EU and creation of a sort of super-state."

We believe that the European Commission president should be elected according to the nominations proposed by the representatives of member-states and subsequently endorsed by the EP, says Petrov, expressing his criticism of the model of the nomination of spitzenkandidaten (that is pan-European lead candidates) nominated by European political parties' groups.

Petrov is for the introduction of the euro as the national currency in Croatia after the country shows readiness for that move and provided that it is approved by citizens in a referendum.

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

ZAGREB, May 4, 2019 - While Croatia is in the middle of the campaign for the May European Parliament elections, another election in Croatia on Sunday, when members of 14 registered ethnic minorities, almost 255,000 voters, will elect national minority councils.

Members of 14 ethnic minorities are eligible to elect 352 members of minority councils and 109 representatives. Councils will be elected in 19 counties, the City of Zagreb, 68 towns and 108 municipalities. Representatives are elected in 19 counties, the City of Zagreb, 34 towns and one municipality.

Councils representing an ethnic minority are set up in local communities in which the pertaining minority makes up at least 1.5% of the local population, or if there are more than 200 members of an ethic minority in a municipality or town or more than 500 members in an area of a county.

The president of the ethnic minority council, Aleksanadar Tolnauer, has called on all ethnic minorities in Croatia to go to the polls on Sunday, stressing that it was exceptionally important for their voice to be heard.

More news about the status of ethnic minorities can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, May 3, 2019 - The fourth national Walk for Life, Family and Croatia will be held in five cities this year – on May 25, electoral silence day, it will be held in Zagreb, Split and Zadar and a week earlier it will be staged in Osijek and Rijeka, the coordinators of the Walk for Life initiative said on Friday.

The event will be held under the slogan "Let us protect the most endangered minority in Croatia – unborn children".

Referring to the decision of the State Election Commission (DIP) to greenlight the event, the coordinators of the Walk for Life initiative said that they did not see anything contentious about the date of the walk and stressed that they would not be sending any political messages.

The national walk for life has been held every year since 2016 in the largest cities and it usually draws several thousand participants. This year, Osijek and Zadar have joined the initiative.

Andreja Kotnik of the Walk for Life initiative said that they supported life from conception to natural death, noting that two in three abortions were due to low living standards or social pressure.

The coordinators said that their initiative was a civic one, that they did not wish to send any political messages and did not support any slate or political campaign for EU elections, to be held in Croatia on May 26.

DIP said earlier that the event was not in violation of the electioneering ban but advised its participants to respect the rules on electoral silence.

Last year's Walk for Life was attended, among others, by European Parliament member Marijana Petir and member of the Croatian Parliament Zlatko Hasanbegović, who are running in the upcoming elections for the EP.

Asked if they expected Karlo Ressler, the lead candidate on the ruling HDZ party's slate for EP elections, who used to walk for life, to attend this year's event, the coordinators of the initiative did not answer, saying only that all wishing to come were welcome.

More news about the abortion issues can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, May 3, 2019 - Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) leader Milorad Pupovac on Friday commented on recent incidents in which SDSS billboards were vandalised, including with Ustasha symbols, saying that the billboards and their message were meant to free people and society from fear and promote freedom as well as that he would not report the incidents to the police because he no longer wanted to remind them of what their job was.

"Our billboards and messages are against fear and for freedom. They are against hate and are meant to help free this society from hate. The Cyrillic script on the SDSS billboards that some are bothered by is a script that wants to be not only a means of communication but a means of liberation of our society from the prejudices and hate that have been spreading for years and to which nobody is reacting," Pupovac told a news conference.

The SDSS party, which is running for the first time in elections for the European Parliament, has put up billboards with the slogan "Do you know what it is like to be a Serb in Croatia?", with the word 'Serb' written in the Cyrillic script.

One of those billboards, put up in Split, was recently vandalised, with the words 'Serb' and 'SDSS' having been blotted out and with messages added such as 'NDH', "For the homeland, ready" and "Start your tractors", an allusion to Serb refugees fleeing Croatia during 1995's Operation Storm.

Pupovac warned that the Cyrillic script, one of the first Slavic scripts, could not gain acceptance in Croatia. "To us that script is a script of freedom and we will use it as such to help free this society from those who wish to... restrict the freedoms of others and of the entire society when it comes to differences and possibility of choice," he said.

He noted that the SDSS had decided to run in EP elections to expand the space of freedom for voters who lived in regions where they did not dare declare their ethnic background or vote in line with their beliefs.

Commenting on HRAST MP Hrvoje Zekanović's statement that he regretted Pupovac did not flee to Belgrade on a tractor in 1995, Pupovac said that he was not afraid. "Neither should you be afraid because those people are cowards. Instead of carrying flags of freedom, they carry a flag of hate and symbols of crime."

The SDSS leader said that he would not contact the police over the destruction of SDSS billboards because he was "fed up with reminding the police of what they should do."

He also said that some things would not be happening if top state officials would say loud and clear what was acceptable in the country and what was not.

More news about the status of Serbs in Croatia can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, May 1, 2019 - A panel discussion involving young people and candidates for European Parliament was held in Zagreb on Tuesday to raise awareness of the importance of EU membership and building the European identity as well as encouraging critical and independent thinking among young people.

The questions asked at the panel, which was organised by the European Movement Croatia and Europe House Zagreb, focused mostly on education, youth employment, reasons for lack of interest in politics, ecology, etc.

Sandra Benčić of the We Can platform said citizens' everyday life and livelihoods were in the platform's focus as statistics showed that young Croatians live with their parents the longest as they cannot afford to live on their own.

She supported job security and dignity, and opposed further liberalisation, noting that Croatia was in the lead in the EU in terms of precarious work, which affected young people the most.

Young people are not interested in politics because they lack experience, they have problems finding a job without a party membership card and that is why they are leaving the country, she said.

Independent candidate Tome Antičić, who is on the Croatian People's Party (HNS) slate, criticised the EU for excessive red tape and lack of competitiveness, which, he said, was the reason why young people were leaving it.

The most successful companies in the world are not from the EU, which shows that something in it is wrong, the system of education is uneven, uncompetitive and inflexible, and mobility is poor, he said.

Tomislav Sokol of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) supported the principle of subsidiarity, saying that Croatia had so far absorbed 14 billion kuna more from the EU budget than it had paid into it.

Young people should be given a chance to gain experience and should be enabled to take over duties, notably those who have proven themselves in their field of expertise, he said.

Sonja Čikotić of the MOST party said that young people in Croatia and the rest of the EU had similar problems. They should be given higher scholarships and should be helped to find a job through specific employment programmes, she said.

Independent candidate Bojan Glavašević, a candidate on the START slate, underlined the need to connect Croatian regions by a high-speed railway to be built with the help of EU funds and to fight social dumping by creating a social shield and setting a mechanism to determine the minimum wage.

Member of the European Parliament Marijana Petir, who is running for another term as an independent candidate, warned that only 31% of the available funding had been absorbed from EU funds for rural development.

Saša Polanec Borić of the Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS) stressed the importance of Croatia's entry into the Schengen area for the even development of Croatian regions, warning that money from EU funds was being used to encourage insecure forms of employment.

Independent candidate Mirela Holy, who is running in the EU election on the Social Democratic Party (SDP) slate, called for greater mobility of students, quality education, better youth employment and legalisation of marijuana.

Ivica Puljak of the Pametno party stressed the importance of dealing with problems and challenges, noting that that required competence and hard work and that money from EU funds should be used for development rather than as welfare.

Ana Vlahov of the Work and Solidarity Party said that she would promote the interests of young people wishing to enter the world of enterprise and innovation.

More European Parliament election news can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, April 29, 2019 - Candidates of the opposition MOST party running in the May 26 election for the European Parliament said on Monday that if elected, they would ask that the mass-scale emigration from Croatia be taken into account in the allocation of money from EU funds and that they would seek compensation.

"MOST wants mass-scale emigration from some EU countries to be taken as a criterion in fund allocation so that the EU can develop evenly," MOST leader Božo Petrov told a news conference.

He stressed that Croatia would never be able to achieve the same level of development as the more developed EU countries and that the gap would grow if the mass-scale emigration of educated people was not taken into account.

"We cannot accept to be the periphery of Europe that produces highly qualified personnel for other, more developed countries," he said.

MOST proposes several solutions to the problem, including allocating more money for new EU members from Horizon Europe programme, totalling 96 billion euro, or setting aside more funding for less developed members through the European Research Council.

There can be no economic growth and development without highly qualified personnel, and so far close to 500,000 people have left Croatia, Petrov said, calling on citizens to vote in the coming European elections and punish "the incompetence, negligence and lack of professionalism of those who have managed money from EU funds so far and give a chance to those who fight for Croatia's interests."

More news about European election can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, April 29, 2019 - As many as 255,000 people in Croatia are eligible to vote in elections for the local councils and individual representatives of ethnic minorities, scheduled for 5 May.

Members of 14 ethnic minorities are eligible to elect 515 councils, whereas members of 20 minorities can elect 144 individual representatives.

Councils representing an ethnic minority are set up in local communities in which the pertaining minority makes up at least 1.5% of the local population, or if there are more than 200 members of an ethic minority in a municipality or town or more than 500 members in an area of a county.

Municipal councils representing ethnic minorities include 10 representatives, town-level councils of this kind consist of 15 representatives and county-level councils include 25 members.

Twenty counties, 68 cities and towns and 108 municipalities will organise elections for ethnic minority councils, and 6,882 candidates are running in them.

On the other hand, 20 minorities will elect their individual representatives in 20 counties, 34 cities and towns and in one municipality, and a total of 242 candidates are in the race.

More election news can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, April 29, 2019 - Candidates on the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) slate for European elections on Sunday visited the northern town of Čakovec, with the lead candidate, Karlo Ressler, saying that they were touring towns that had received EU funding for local projects in order to make citizens aware that local projects were connected with European projects.

"That is why elections for the European Parliament are, in a way, local elections," Ressler said, adding that the HDZ platform was based on the promotion of Croatian identity, history and culture.

Speaking of a visit by German Chancellor Angela Merkel to Zagreb on May 18, when she will attend an HDZ election rally, Ressler said that the visit would support strongly the party's campaign and would provide an opportunity to send a broader European message.

"It will also be one of the few visits by the EPP candidate for European Commission President, Manfred Weber, and a strong message of support to what the HDZ has been doing," Ressler said, adding that Prime Minister and HDZ leader Andrej Plenković's work in running the country and the party was recognised also outside Croatia.

"In Zagreb, we will send a message of European unity and unity of the European People's Party," said Ressler.

Economy Minister Darko Horvat, who accompanied the HDZ candidates during their visit to Čakovec, was asked to comment on Social Democratic Party (SDP) leader Davor Bernardić signing a union petition calling for a referendum against raising the retirement age to 67, and he said that there would be more petty politicking during the current election campaign.

What Labour and Pension System Minister Marko Pavić has been doing is the only way to pull the pension system out of problems, Horvat said.

More European election news can be found in the Politics section.