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 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 - 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.

ZAGREB, April 28, 2019 - German Chancellor Angela Merkel will attend an election rally of the European People's Party in Zagreb in May, which will be her first appearance at rallies outside Germany, and she will also meet with Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, government spokesman Marko Milić confirmed to Hina.

Merkel and the favourite for the next European Commission President, lead candidate Manfred Weber, will attend the central EPP election rally in Zagreb on May 18.

Merkel's visit to Zagreb, after Plenković's two visits to Berlin during his current term, confirms the ever closer Croatian-German relations, the government said.

Choosing Zagreb as the host of the central EPP rally ahead of elections for the European Parliament confirms the good relations between Chancellor Merkel and Prime Minister Plenković, as well as the HDZ's work in the EPP and Croatia's position in the European Council, Milić said.

More news about relations between Croatia and Germany can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, April 26, 2019 - Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) leader Milorad Pupovac, the party's prime candidate for the forthcoming European Parliament elections, said on Friday that the status of Serbs was an issue that impacts the European nature of Croatia.

Presenting the party's programme for the elections, Pupovac said that the SDSS was the only political party representing an ethnic minority to run in the EP elections in Croatia.

"We have embarked on the election campaign with the slogan 'Do you know what it is like to be a Serb in Croatia'. This is a question not often asked and many do not think that it deserves any attention, and it is a matter influencing the volume of liberties and normality in Croatia and the European nature of Croatia," the SDSS chief and parliamentarian said.

He went to say that the SDSS wants to contribute to efforts to fend Europe and Croatia from ultra-nationalism and ultra-clericalism in Europe and Croatia.

"We want to have an unbowed Croatia, an unbowed Europe and unbowed Serbs in Croatia," Pupovac said adding that this party would fight against attempts to reduce the rights of the Serbs and other minorities in Croatia as well as in all other EU member-states.

He hopes that during the election campaign the party would raise the funds in the amount of a half million kuna.

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

ZAGREB, April 26, 2019 - Slightly more than a third of EU citizens say that they are certain to go to the polls in elections for the European Parliament in May, and the share of Croatians who are most likely to go to the polls is a mere 17%, shows a Eurobarometer survey published on Thursday.

Elections for the European Parliament will be held from 23 to 26 May, and the results of the spring Eurobarometer survey, released one month ahead of the elections, show that a large portion of EU citizens are yet to be convinced to go to the polls.

Considering the political context and uncertainty related to Brexit, the survey brings average data for 27 EU member states while data for the United Kingdom are shown separately.

The results show that as many as 61% of Europeans believe EU membership is a good thing, while only 10% believe it is not, which is the best result in more than 25 years. Most EU citizens, or 68%, believe that their country benefits from EU membership while 62% of Croatians think so.

When asked how they would vote if a referendum on leaving the EU were to be held tomorrow, 68% of Europeans said they would vote to stay, as did slightly more than 50% of Croatians.

Compared to the autumn Eurobarometer survey, when 53% of UK citizens were in favour of staying in the EU, now 45% want to stay, while the percentage of those who would support Brexit in case of a second referendum has increased slightly, from 35% to 37%.

Thirty-five percent of EU citizens are certain to vote in the May elections. In Croatia, 17% are most likely to vote and 16% are likely to vote while 50% say they will most likely not go to the polls on May 26. Forty-four percent of Europeans say the main reason for going to the polls is their civic duty to vote.

Most young voters in the EU, or 74%, have a positive opinion of the EU but only one in five is certain to go to the polls.

The turnout in the last elections for the European Parliament in Croatia, in 2014, was 25% and the rate among young people was only 13%.

The Eurobarometer survey shows that the five key topics for Europeans in the election campaign are economy and growth, combating youth unemployment, immigration, combating climate change and protecting the environment and global terrorism.

The survey also shows that one in two Europeans believes that the direction in which the EU is going is wrong.

In early April, a phone survey, so-called Flash Eurobarometer, commissioned by the European Parliament, was conducted as well.

Its results show that 80% of Europeans believe that what brings them together is more important than what separates them, an opinion held also by 76% of Croatian respondents.

Fifty-five percent of Europeans feel hope and confidence when they think of the EU, while one in three respondents covered by the survey feels doubts. In Croatia, 36% of respondents feel hope when thinking about the EU.

As for political engagement in the past month, eight in ten respondents say that they discussed political topics with their family members, friends and acquaintances at least once. Seventy-two percent followed political programmes on TV.

The spring Eurobarometer survey was conducted by the Kantar Public agency in the period from February 19 to March 4 on a representative sample of respondents aged over 15.

In Croatia, 1,007 respondents were interviewed face-to-face, the European Parliament Office in Croatia said.

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

ZAGREB, April 25, 2019 - Marijana Petir, who is running in elections for the European Parliament, on Thursday presented her slate, saying that mattered who represented Croatia in the European Parliament, which was why she has decided to run for another term with people who understood ordinary people.

"Seventy percent of the legislation adopted at EU level must also be implemented by Croatia," Petir said while presenting other candidates on her slate - Domagoj Stjepan Krnjak, Mato Brlošić, Klementina Karanović, Neda Aberle, Zvonimir Kalić, Melita Vrbanek, Tvrtko Krpina, Ana Volarić-Mršić, Anka Musa, Ana Lazeta and Petar Jurčević.

Speaking about her work as a member of the European Parliament on defining policies concerning agriculture, rural development, environmental protection, sustainable development, human rights and the status of rural women, Petir said that she had been awarded as the best female member of the European Parliament in agriculture, rural development and fisheries.

She said that Croatian citizens had benefited directly from her work. "It was owing to my work that the EU approved subsidies for healthy milk, fruit and vegetable meals in schools and that food is bought from Croatian family farms. That has opened a new market for Croatian farmers, the first legal exception concerning the amount of the financial envelope for demining has been won, and I also worked on the adoption of the Directive on Unfair Trading Practices," she said.

She said that as the EP rapporteur on rural women she advocated a better status for rural women, adding that the EP had adopted her 100 amendments to the reform of the common agricultural policy.

Brlošić said that the common agricultural policy was exceptionally important for Croatian farmers who were allocated around 5 billion euro from the joint budget.

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

ZAGREB, April 25, 2019 - The State Election Commission (DIP) on Wednesday said that the "Walk for Life", an anti-abortion march to be organised by a civil society group on Mach 25 in Zagreb, Split and Zadar, is not in violation of the electioneering ban to be in force on March 25, the day before elections for the European Parliament, but that candidates running in those elections who will participate in the march have to respect electoral silence rules.

DIP recalls in a statement that it does not have any legal power to ban public gatherings, including the Walk for Life.

It underscores that electioneering begins on the day when slates are made public and ends 24 hours prior to election day, when the media blackout period begins and lasts until 1900 hours on election day.

At the coming European Parliament election, the blackout period will last from midnight May 25th to 1900 hrs May 26th.

During the blackout period "a ban shall be in force on any form of electioneering, the release of any estimates of election results or of early, unofficial election results, photographs by public media outlets, or of lead candidates' statements and interviews and their quoting." Any violation of the electioneering ban is subject to a fine.

"Consequently, the Walk for Life does not constitute a breach of electoral silence, however, election participants who will possibly attend the march are obliged to respect the relevant rules," DIP underscored.

The Movement for a Modern Croatia on Tuesday asked DIP to ban the May 25 pro-life march because it believes that the event will serve to promote some of the candidates running in elections for the European Parliament.

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