ZAGREB, January 15, 2020 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Wednesday he would not allow Croatia to be labelled as a country of anarchy, disorder and distrust in the system.

"That simply isn't correct," he said in parliament during Question Time after Social Democratic Party president Davor Bernardić said a recent triple murder in Split pointed to a lack of trust in institutions, which he said was Croatia's huge problem.

Citizens are bitter with good reason and side with those who take justice into their hands, which is not good. People have lost trust in the police, the State Prosecutor's Office, the judiciary and the government, Bernardić said, asking Plenković what was being done to stop the chaos, disorder and lawlessness.

"Such a generalisation doesn't hold water," Plenković said, adding that statistics showed Croatia to be one of the safer EU member states.

He said Bernardic was taking the Split case out of context. "It's as though you are showing understanding for an anarchy attempt, for taking justice into one's own hands."

"The government and state institutions won't allow that. There will be no anarchy in Croatia," Plenković said, adding that the police had undertaken many operations which resulted in arrests and indictments against many criminal groups.

In Split-Dalmatia County alone, there have been 1,823 narcotics seizures, he said, adding that the police solved last weekend's triple murder in a matter of hours. He agreed that the work of institutions must be stepped up, including prevention.

Bernardić agreed it was not good that people were taking justice into their hands but insisted that Plenković did not say what was being done and that, therefore, "nothing is being done."

He told the prime minister to look at what the people was thinking instead of hiding in Brussels and Strasbourg. People have lost trust in institutions, they can't look at the chaos, that's why whole families are emigrating, mainly from regions where the HDZ is in power such as Slavonia, he said.

"People feel unsafe with good reason. Your four-year term can be summed up with two words, chaos and corruption," Bernardić said.

More politics news can be found in the dedicated section.

ZAGREB, January 14, 2020 - Croatian Peasant Party (HSS) leader Krešo Beljak on Monday apologised for his tweet in which he said that the number of killings carried out by the Yugoslav intelligence agency UDBA was insufficient.

Two days after the controversial tweet, which has been interpreted as his condoning of politically motivated assassinations of emigrants by UDBA during the time of communist-ruled Yugoslavia, this parliamentary deputy and mayor of Samobor on Monday tweeted that he was sorry about his "clumsy and unfortunate tweet", justifying his reaction as being part of a broader discussion that was full of insults and lies.

"I am sorry if my tweet was construed as my support for political assassinations. That, of course, is not true. I am sorry If I insulted anybody. I made a mistake," Beljak wrote today.

Two days ago, he wrote that if UDBA killed over 100 people in the Croatian emigrant community in the USA, Germany, Canada and Australia, "then it was not enough. We could see who did all sorts of shit and caused the wars from 1991 to 1999. Fascists in the former Yugoslavia and other countries who, unfortunately, managed to escape UDBA."

Beljak's comment was prompted by a tweet written by a person named Renato who said that "Yugo-nostalgics fail to realize that there were over 100 political assassinations outside of Yugoslavia from 1945 to 1990. The UDBA was active in every Croatian immigrant community in the USA, Germany, Canada and Australia."

More politics news can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, January 11, 2020 - Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS) president Dario Hrebak on Saturday called on centre parties to unite for the next parliamentary election, saying the HSLS and several liberal centre parties shared a similar political agenda.

"Fighting corruption, increasing transparency, introducing digitisation. That's the political agenda the HSLS shares with... Pametno, Start and Lipa," he told reporters ahead of an HSLS Presidency meeting.

Hrebak said the forming of a coalition for the coming parliamentary election would depend solely on the support other parties showed his party's transparency project, such as the one in Bjelovar.

Asked if he had already contacted those parties, he said intensive talks were under way and that his party was open to collaboration with any political party.

Hrebak said the transparency project in Bjelovar, of which he is the mayor, would be the HSLS trademark and that its message was that citizens had the right to know how their money was spent on the local as well as the state level.

He went on to say that big parties like the HDZ and the SDP had done less about corruption over the past 30 years than the HSLS in Bjelovar over the past year.

He said they "are not the solution, they are the problem. They can't successfully fight against corruption."

Hrebak said corruption must be dealt with and that what was going on in Zagreb must stop, adding that the ruling HDZ's biggest mistake was to cooperate with Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandić.

He said the HSLS, which has one MP thanks to a coalition with the HDZ, would no longer unreservedly support anyone. "It's no secret we support the ruling party, but it's no secret either that we are bothered that (Bandić's MPs) still rule in the Croatian parliament."

More politics news can be found in the dedicated section.

ZAGREB, January 11, 2020 - Prime Minister and HDZ party leader Andrej Plenković said in an interview with the Večernji List daily issue of Saturday that he was confident his party would win the next parliamentary election owing to its unity and the government's results, and that his government would continue to lead Croatia in the right direction.

He also announced that all the necessary decisions, including a decision on calling intraparty elections, would be made in time, adding that this year parliamentary elections would be held as well and that Croatia was now chairing the EU.

Plenković went on to say that anyone who believed that they could contribute to the party was welcome to run for HDZ president and that the winner would be decided by the party membership.

He added that his ambition, when he took over the leadership of the HDZ, had been to put his experience at the service of development of all parts of Croatia and the country's greater visibility in the world.

The government wants to present its achievements to the public in a more detailed and more convincing manner, Plenković said, adding that now that the government's results in all fields were much better than before, primarily for Croatian citizens, those achievements were not sufficiently valued.

"It is our task to enable the HDZ to stay, after the elections, the strongest and winning party, and I'm confident that we will achieve that goal," he said, adding that in the present election system, except in the case of large pre-election coalitions, a single party was not likely to win more than 76 parliamentary seats and that the HDZ would seek partners with a similar platform and worldview.

In that context, he recalled that the HDZ's decision of 2016 to choose as its partners MOST, all representatives of ethnic minorities and several deputies who had supported the HDZ, had been natural and logical.

He noted that the reason for the breakup of the coalition with MOST had been their disloyal decision not to support Finance Minister Zdravko Marić, who had been a member of a previous coalition government together with MOST.

Commenting on presidential candidate Miroslav Škoro, who in the first round of the recent presidential election came in third, Plenković said that Škoro was a former HDZ member of parliament and consul-general to Pecs and that he had never seen any signs of any divergence between Škoro's worldview and identity and the HDZ's basic principles and values.

Plenković added, however, that while listening to his recent speeches, he noticed that Škoro had taken over the rhetoric of the MOST party and that he equated the HDZ with the Social Democratic Party (SDP).

"That cannot be his own theory. I don't think he is sincere. I have had the feeling the whole time that he is stating somebody else's agenda. Unlike him, I speak my mind and stand by my party programme," said Plenković.

President-elect Zoran Milanović deceived voters and HDZ members back in the 2016 election campaign by saying that the HDZ had leaned to the left, and he did it also in the recent campaign for presidential elections, claimed the HDZ leader.

He added that Milanović had falsely accused him of "having a worse opinion of (Franjo) Tuđman than he does", noting that he had a very high opinion of Tuđman and describing Milanović's claim as "a perfidious deceit... that has caused huge political damage."

Plenković said that the elements used to justify the HDZ's alleged leaning to the left were the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (Marrakesh Treaty) and the ratification of the Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention), whereby, he said, his government wanted to strengthen the mechanisms for the prevention of violence against women and domestic violence.

The government also adopted an interpretative statement saying that the Istanbul Convention "in no way introduces gender ideology, which we, too, oppose, into the Croatian legal order," said Plenković.

As for his statement that the cohabitation with President-elect Milanović would be tough, he explained that it meant cohabitation in line with the Constitution between two significantly different political camps.

As for the political future of outgoing President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, PM Plenković said that he was confident that she would make the best possible decision about her future political and professional career, thanking her for everything she had done for the country, notably on the foreign policy front.

More HDZ news can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, January 10, 2020 - The Democrats, a parliamentary party led by former Social Democrat Mirando Mrsić, warned on Friday about the possibility of the opposition Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) forming a grand coalition, calling on left-wing parties to oppose that and support a platform for a modern and open Croatia.

"Zoran Milanović's victory shows best what left parties should do to win parliamentary elections. We should come together and work together to remove from power the HDZ and the (bargaining) chips," Mrsić said, alluding to deputies making up the parliamentary group of Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandić's party.

The Democrats believe that the SDP has not recognised the importance of left-wing opposition parties rallying but has offered cooperation to the HDZ and Andrej Plenković, thus creating conditions for a post-election coalition with the HDZ.

The party called on left and centre-left parties to rally around a programme for a modern and open Croatia where competence and hard work rather than party membership would be the price of success.

"Coming together and participating in the elections together is the only way to prevent a grand coalition between the HDZ and SDP and the continuation of the plunder of Croatia," said the party.

More SDP news 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.

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, December 18, 2019 - The government on Wednesday dismisses as unfounded the motion for no confidence vote in Education Minister Blaženka Divjak.

The motion, initiated by the Social Democratic Party (SDP), was signed by 31 parliamentary deputies of opposition parties.

"We absolutely reject all the allegations in the motion, including the claims about the protests of the education sector's employees and also the claims about the educational reform," said Prime Minister Andrej Plenković at the start hi his cabinet's meeting in Zagreb.

The explanation provided by the government says that the Plenković cabinet has systematically cared for the improvement of the status of teacher and other employees in the education sector.

Improvements have been made in the material status of those workers, through wards and promotions of the best employees, as well as through the improvement of safety and security at the workplace and equipment of schools, and through further training aimed at the enhancement of teachers' competences, says the government.

It also recalls that in the next 12 months the wages io the education sector's employees would rise through higher wage base and higher job complexity indices for salaries.

More news about politics can be found in the dedicated section.

ZAGREB, December 11, 2019 - Three political parties - HRAST, the Croatian Conservative Party (HKS) and the Bloc for Croatia - on Wednesday signed an agreement on joint participation in the next parliamentary election as part of the Croatian Sovereigntist platform, expressing confidence that they would win at least 15 seats and that it would not be possible to form the next government without them.

The signatories to the agreement confirmed that they would support independent candidate Miroslav Škoro in the coming presidential elections.

HKS leader Marijan Pavliček said he was confident that after the right-wing voter camp had been fragmented over the last 15 years, the Croatian Sovereigntists would win at least 15 seats in the next parliamentary elections.

"A snowball has been started at the elections for the European Parliament and it will grow into an avalanche in the parliamentary elections," Pavliček said, adding that after 20 years of globalist governments, the time had come for a sovereigntist government that would answer only to the Croat people.

HRAST leader Ladislav Ilčić said that globalist lobbies, "although wrapped in beautiful paper", often worked against the interests of the Croat people and state.

"The only way to identify them is the identity and values that have determined the Croat people throughout the centuries," Ilčić said, adding that what made the Sovereigntists special was the advocacy of that identity and those values.

HRAST member of parliament Hrvoje Zekanović said that the sovereigntist camp also included numerous civic initiatives, such as the Truth about the Istanbul Convention, the Croatian Rampart as well as numerous prominent individuals.

Zlatko Hasanbegović of the Bloc for Croatia said that Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and the ruling HDZ party were in a state of panic because the coming presidential elections, followed by parliamentary elections, would articulate the dissatisfaction of voters caused by the formation of "an anti-national Croatian-Serb coalition that is based on political trade-offs", which, he said, "is against the authentic will of the electorate."

Zekanović, too, believes that the HDZ is losing popularity and that Plenković "evidently has problem coping with that."

More politics news can be found in the dedicated section.

October 8, 2019 - While there is some speculation that Zagreb's mayor will enter the race for Croatia's presidency, one Milan Bandic has already joined the race. 

Full disclosure - my record of interviewing winners in Croatian presidential campaigns is poor, as Ivo Josipovic will testify to when I interviewed him for a Canadian news portal back in 2014. 

But have I backed a winner this time? 

Milan Bandic has run for President before, coming second to Josipovic in 2010. And while the Zagreb Mayor mulls another run, lo and behold, but ANOTHER Milan Bandic has entered the race. 

Known until recently as Dario Jurican, presidential hopeful Milan Bandic, who you can see interviewed on primetime national news below. His core message seems to be very egalitarian - corruption for all!

1. You have decided to run for President and even changed your name to Milan Bandic, coincidentally the same name as Zagreb's mayor. Firstly, what made you decide to run, and why the name change? 1. You have decided to run for President and even changed your name to Milan Bandic, coincidentally the same name as Zagreb's mayor. Firstly, what made you decide to run, and why the name change?  

I changed my name a long time before the campaign, and I changed the name because God came in my dreams and told me — you gonna be Milan Bandić, the saviour of Croatia! You, Milan, are the future. So I changed the name and here I am — running for President of this holy land.

 
2. There has been talk that there is a possibility that we will have two Milan Bandićes running against each other if the Zagreb Mayor also decided to run. That could be fun.

I am here now fully focused on this campaign for President and concentrating on this challenge, and I still hope the other Milan Bandić will announce his campaign for President.

 
3. We will come to the campaign in a moment, but we are a little obsessed with bureaucracy at TCN. How easy is it to change your name in Croatia regarding paperwork?

It was a normal process — I made the application, and they delivered the decision in regular time.

The hell only came later when Mayor Milan Bandić unleashed his bureaucratic dogs on me. They cancelled the decision made by their own local body. I was forced to appeal the decision and won.

Just yesterday came a new decision from the Mayor's office. It seems to me that Mayor Bandić is going personally against my name change. To be continued...

4. Let's talk policy. What do you offer that others do not, and what are the core campaign pledges and areas of focus?

In Croatia structures cherish the custom of hiding corruption. There is so much hypocrisy and false shame around it.

I have put corruption at the centre of my campaign — my main motto is: corruption for everyone, not just to them. I will give corruption back to the little corrupt people and I will counter every offer to voters by giving double!
 
5. How do you assess the state of politics in Croatia today, and what is the best route to a better Croatia and effective change? We seem to be stuck in the same place without ever moving forward.

Croatia is a small, unimportant country with underdeveloped corruption. We need to make it legal, and we need to make it big.
 
6. You are currently just under 2% in the polls. How do you plan to improve on that?

I'm not worried. Stjepan Mesić had 2% support in the polls in 2000. and he became a two-term President.

The win is just around the corner!

7. What will happen to your name after the election if you don't win? Will you remain Milan Bandic?  

Milan Bandić is my destiny, my muse, my future...
 
8. And finally, why should people vote for Milan Bandic for President in a sentence.

I will make Croatia corrupt again!

You can follow the Milan Bandic presidential campaign on Facebook.