April the 25th, 2023 - The Croatian National Theatre (HNK) in Zagreb recently paid homage to the English music legend John Lennon in the form of an opera written by no less than former Croatian President Ivo Josipovic.

Composers love to play with words, to listen to how they sound when set to music, to write and re-write the notes until they feel the ‘obtained’ amalgamate expresses an emotion, a situation or a story the way they see it in their never resting imagination. I myself think they hear the music constantly, like when walking around a shopping mall - not as a noise, but as some musical syllable or a theme. And so they make our lives indescribably richer and happier. Just try to imagine what we'd be listening to on the radio - news and more news, tales, just words, words, and more words. Imagine.

Zagreb, the capital city of all Croats wherever they may be located around the world, would maybe surprise you with the number of cultural and arts institutions it boasts, and, especially, with the number of cultural happenings every single day. It kind of reminds me, however on an immeasurably smaller scale, of my young days in New York when I wanted to see every single thing, every single day, and kept feeling unjustly deprived because I simply couldn't. The same happens in Zagreb, albeit proportionately.

Zagreb's very first public theatre came to be in the year 1834. The present imposing building of the Croatian National Theatre has been there ever since 1875. It's hard to imagine how many things have taken place there in that time. In the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb, usually only ''big'' pieces of theatre, opera and ballet are performed, and they're not only big, but also so good that every opera evening over the last several months has been a total sellout.

I have a special affinity with that theatre's opera intended for kids up to three years old. It's praiseworthy and a big congratulations to the artists, and to the management, is due. I was surprised fairly recently when a teenager asked who (tf) Paul McCartney is after he released a song with Rihanna and Kanye West, realising how talented he is. That can easily transport us back to those days of a world blooming and flourishing in more sense than one, with The Beatles as an emblematic group of young men who ruled the world ( because they ruled our hearts).

If you weren't around back then, Google is your friend. It will tell you precisely who John Lennon was. Croatian composer Ivo Josipovic, who is also the country's ex president, was among the billions utterly shocked by the murder that suddenly put an end to John Lennon’s life at the age of 40. Intrigued by the psychological profile of Mark Chapman who shot
Lennon in the street while declaring himself to be  true fan, Josipovic felt the urge to dedicate a piece of performative work to Lennon and to his memory. It took years until it finally came out of the nib of his pen as an opera simply entitled ''Lennon''.

''Lennon'' is a big piece of theatre, involving a large ensemble of singers, dancers and a full orchestra. As expected, the music performed has nothing to do with the music of The Beatles. In a modern musical idiom, in brief, it tries to imagine what flashes bolted through Lennon’s mind between the moment he was shot and the moment he died. His grief for the mother, whom he lost when he was just 18, plays out, as do his ambiguous relationships with his first wife Cynthia and with May, his assistant, and the other three musicians from the band (where Paul McCartney appears as the closest to Lennon) and, particularly, naturally and throughout the piece, his relationship with Yoko Ono, his second wife, plays out.

In other words, the last seconds of his natural existence on this Earth play out, lasting for almost two hours, giving shape to his memories, emotions and, especially, to his feelings for the most important people in his life as he slips from this world into the next. Amongst it all, he occasionally alludes to how it is necessary to give peace a chance, the cause Lennon stood for so firmly and profoundly.

Yet another very interesting feature of ''Lennon'' is that it is sung in English. Josipovic's work was clearly a huge undertake, with beautiful artistic delivery among impressing stage sets and a masterful design of lights.

Thanks to the cooperation of the Zagreb Music Biennale and the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb, this project causes feelings of warmth and reminds us that this small nation has always been a participant and a contributor to the artistic memory of the world.

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March the 24th, 2023 - This week in Croatian politics, we've had ongoing issues with post-earthquake reconstruction, more arguing between Plenkovic and Milanovic, and former President Ivo Josipovic thinks its time for the Constitutional Court to get involved.

Zagreb mayor Tomislav Tomasevic has openly discussed his relationship with Andrej Plenkovic, saying that "of course there is some tension..."

Tomislav Tomasevic recently appeared as a guest on Dnevnik N1, where he discussed, among other things such as the post-earthquake reconstruction process, his relationship with the prime minister. In his words, there are tensions, but the pair still need to work together.

"We have to work together, and we need to cooperate because of EU funds, I guess it is in everyone's interest that this money is spent. I think that so far, we've managed to cooperate in a good way, and yes, of course there are conflicts, one concrete example is the increase in water prices. Several dozen cities raised their water prices without any hype about it,'' Tomasevic said.

When it comes to Zagreb, he says they don't have a single affair to discuss.

"A new tram line is being built for the first time after 20 years, new buses and trams are here, some order has been introduced on the street terraces... Before that, not a single new tram had been bought for 17 years, we have trams running in this city that are even older than me,'' remarked the Zagreb mayor.

The European Commission is set to get a much more detailed insight into what's going on with Croatia's post-earthquake reconstruction process

I don't know about you, but I personally didn't think anyone would still be saying the words ''post-earthquake reconstruction process'' three entire years after the Zagreb earthquake of March 2020, and well over two years since the Petrinja earthquake struck in December of that same year. Alas, things move slowly in the world of Croatian politics, and we are still uttering those words. The European Commission is going to be getting a detailed look into precisely what's going on. 

Today, the European Commission will be informed of the review of the state of Croatian post-earthquake reconstruction, which is being financed from the EU Solidarity Fund, as well as Croatia's view of costs across all of its ministries.

This meeting was announced by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Construction, Branko Bacic, who, on the occasion of the third anniversary of the Zagreb earthquake (March the 22nd), assessed that the aforementioned segment of Croatian post-earthquake reconstruction is being implemented in full as planned, so this gives some hope that the money will be spent within the prescribed deadline.

You can read more by clicking here.

Has the much talked about Jarun bridge project been kicked into the long grass?

A large project which would have connected the western part of the capital city to Novi Zagreb appears to have stalled completely, with Tomasevic saying that he'd much rather strengthen the city's already existing bridges in case of another earthquake than build another. That all sounds alright, but there are people stuck in limbo because of this decision. People with properties situated along the route that would lead to the would-be bridge can't do anything to repair or reconstruct their houses which were damaged during 2020's earthquake. This issue affects 150 houses situated along this route which are awaiting demolition, but owing to only some things having been formally agreed upon and legalised by the state and other items having been simply disregarded, the situation sits stagnant. Experts say that the Jarun bridge is a classic example of the violation of various laws that ultimately put the City of Zagreb into a deeply unfavourable situation.

You can read more on that by clicking here.

Plenkovic claims that foreign leaders are set to come to Zagreb but none of them want to meet with President Zoran Milanovic

The trolling, mud slinging and arguments between Plenkovic and Milanovic have become somewhat iconic at this point. The pair were even depicted as part of the Rijeka carnival process this year. Endlessly taking swipes at each other, these two powerful figures in the world of Croatian politics can never resist a chance to throw each other under the bus.

In this case, however, Plenkovic has a point in the eyes of most when he says that Milanovic's often rather strange comments about the Russia-Ukraine war are simply not in line with Croatia's official position and that he is sending a very wrong message out to the rest of Europe and indeed the world with many of the statements he makes.

His politically damaging statements in regard to Russia and Ukraine have seen political figures from abroad question Croatia's official position, ask how he is ''being allowed to say such things'', and even had Russian media claiming Milanovic supports their country's disgraceful actions. A poor image for Croatia indeed, especially after the absolutely praiseworthy approach it has towards Ukrainian refugees and Ukraine's unfortunately all too familiar struggles.

Plenkovic went more deeply into the above during a recent official visit to Istria, where after initially emphasising everything the government has done so far, he once again referred to the strained relationship his government (HDZ) has with Zoran Milanovic (SDP), and why they refuse to cooperate with him. He enumerated the cases of him blocking the government's proposals for the appointment of various officials and representatives and said:

"This is just to make the general public aware of where the problem is and where the issues stand. Milanovic's views are completely opposite to the natural position of Croatia,'' he said bluntly, before touching on the beginning of Russian aggression against Ukraine back in February 2022, when Milanovic refused a meeting of the National Security Council.

"If there was a moment when we should have met because of serious security threats, that was the moment. After that came his distancing from Croatia's position and his repeating of pro-Russian positions that are completely contrary to what the stance of Croatia is as a European country, a country that is neither neutral nor non-aligned. We have diametrically different views," he said, as N1 reported.

He pointed out that foreign officials don't want to meet with or cooperate with Milanovic, who has isolated himself with his strange statements and views.

"To make you aware, the Spanish Prime Minister was here recently, he didn't meet with him, the Danish Prime Minister was also here as well, she didn't meet with him either, the President of the Canadian Senate came and he didn't meet with him, the Deputy Prime Minister of Italy was here and he did not meet with him. Do you understand what messages our allies and partners are sending him? They're saying; we hear what you've been saying for a year and we don't want anything to do with it,'' Plenkovic said.

Former president Ivo Josipovic says that Plenkovic and Milanovic are the only ones responsible for their poor relationship

Former Croatian president Ivo Josipovic was a recent guest of N1 Studio live, and during that appearance he commented on the constant conflict between President Milanovic and Prime Minister Plenkovic, as well as the elections that are coming next year.

"Both of them are responsible for their poor relationship and I'm sorry that it's happening," Josipovic said in regard to the constant arguing and insults being thrown around between the president and the prime minister. He says that he used to talk to Milanovic from time to time, but not about things going on in the sphere of Croatian politics.

"It's dangerous in a way even if there was a completely regular situation, and this isn't a normal situation [referencing the war in Ukraine]. This conflict creates a bad political climate and damages Croatia's international reputation, as well as the view of Croatian politics here at home,'' he added.

The war in Ukraine has implications for Croatia's immediate neighbourhood and our security, and it isn't a good situation when the two leading statesmen don't talk,'' warned the former president, reminding that both have responsibility for the functioning of the entire political system.

"I have the experience of being in a mandate with a government of the opposite political orientation as well. Did you ever hear such conversations between me and Jadranka Kosor? There was no idyll between me and Milanovic either, but it's important that everyone sticks to their political competence," said Josipovic, who believes that the Constitutional Court could declare this entire situation unconstitutional and force the president and prime minister to sit down and talk properly.

The situation with Croatia not moving quickly enough to absorb the EU cash given to it continues to be a burden

"Over the next 100 days, we must spend 403 million euros. A large number of projects are being implemented in the areas affected by the Zagreb and Petrinja earthquakes, and this gives us hope that we will be able to use this money. The works are now in full swing, the construction sites are filled with workers, and we keep receiving requests for reimbursement of funds daily", it was said by Spatial Planning Minister Branko Bacic.

As most people who have dealt with anything even remotely administrative here, Croatia tends to move at a snail's pace, and those of us who are better acquainted with this had our heads in our hands from the very day the earthquake struck. Of course, what Bacic is saying isn't good enough for most, and the University of Zagreb's rector claims that what Bacic has stated is simply not in line with previous forecasts. 

You can read more by clicking here.

For more on Croatian politics, make sure to keep up with our dedicated section and follow our Week in Croatian Politics articles which are published every Friday.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Jadranka Dozan writes on the 22nd of August, 2019, in her four and a half years in office as Croatian President, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović and the President's Office cost Croatia's taxpayers 155.8 million kuna, while in the same period, 186 million kuna was spent on former president Ivo Josipović during his term.

The Croatian Government's budget expenditures reached 66.9 billion kuna in the first half of this year, and this figure suggests spending is within the previously announced annual plan of 140 billion kuna.

The half-yearly realisation is therefore now at 47.7 percent of the annual plan, but as the budget for 2019 has been increased, when compared to last year and with those 67 billion kuna included, it represents an increase of about five billion kuna in total.

Most departments and government bodies are currently spending at a pace slightly below what was initially planned. Some of this is likely to do with the Ministry of Finance and the troublesome Uljanik guarantees and the European Parliament elections.

Since the first elections are presidential ones, and President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović is often under the auspices of the public precisely through the prism of costs (especially when it comes to her travel), it remains to be noted that the Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia's expenditures amounted to 15.7 million in the first six months of 2019, equal to about 240,000 kuna less than last year.

As previously mentioned, when considering the entire budget mandate so far, President Grabar-Kitarović's office has cost Croatia's taxpayers a total of 155.8 million kuna over the last four and a half years.

At the same time, for the four-and-a-half-year term of former President Ivo Josipović, the Office of the President cost the taxpayer 30 million kuna more, with costs of 186 million kuna (208 million kuna in all of those five years).

Thus, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović's office has annually spent about seven million kuna less than the predecessor.

Make sure to follow our dedicated politics page for much more.

ZAGREB, June 23, 2019 - The non-governmental organisation Vigilare, led by Catholic activist Vice Batarelo, has lost a legal case against former president Ivo Josipović who it claimed discriminated against Catholic believers.

The Supreme Court ruled in April that by saying that "Croatia is a secular state, not a Catholic jamahiriya" Josipović did not disturb or discriminate against the Catholic faithful. It said that his statement may have hurt Roman Catholics but did not put them in a less favourable position in relation to other groups.

The dispute arose after Josipović posted an interview by Ivica Maštruko, a member of the HRT public broadcaster's programming council, on his Facebook page ahead of the Catholic holiday of the Assumption, in which he said that in its programmes the HRT was currying favour with the Church. In an ensuing debate, Josipovic responded to one of the Facebook users that "Croatia is a secular state, not a Catholic jamahiriya," which prompted Batarelo to bring a lawsuit against him to protect the dignity, sentiments and interests of the Catholics in Croatia.

More news about the conservative movement can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, January 27, 2019 - The former president of Croatia and leader of the non-parliamentary Forward Croatia party, Ivo Josipović, announced on Saturday that next week he would begin talks on merging his party with the Social Democratic Party (SDP).

Speaking in an interview with Croatian Radio, Josipović said that he was not entering into talks with the SDP to be the SDP's presidential candidate, adding that he would support former SDP leader and prime minister Zoran Milanović in the presidential race if he showed that he was able to defeat the incumbent Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović at the ballot box.

Josipović said that his talks on joining the Civic Liberal Alliance (GLAS) had ended in failure because that party wanted the new party to be predominantly liberal rather than social democratic, while the SDP had recognised the need for uniting leftist liberal opposition parties. He said he was certain that this process would continue and that talks would be launched with two more parties.

Josipović said that the moves made by SDP leader Davor Bernardić to unite similar centre-left parties were very good. "The mood in the SDP about my return is very positive, despite a few dissenting voices," he said, announcing that a majority of 1,100 members of his party would join the SDP.

Josipović resigned from the SDP after becoming President of Croatia early in 2010. Five years on, he ran for a second term in office but was defeated by the incumbent president Kolinda Grabar Kitarović, who was nominated by the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ). He did not return to the SDP then, but instead formed the Forward Croatia party.

More news on political developments in Croatia can be found in the special section.

ZAGREB, January 23, 2019 - After negotiating his possible entry into the opposition's Civic Liberal Alliance (GLAS) party for three months, Ivo Josipović, a former Croatian president and the current leader of the non-parliamentary party "Go-Forward, Croatia – Progressive Alliance," said Wednesday that he had abandoned the project of joining GLAS and that he would again join the Social Democratic Party (SDP).

Following the latest developments, GLAS leader Anka Mrak Taritaš told reporters that they should ask Josipović if he had negotiated his admission to GLAS with a hidden agenda, and added that her party would like to be "a place of gathering."

"We do not make promises, we do not blackmail or have hidden agendas, and after the negotiations Mr. Josipović said that he is after all a social democrat, and that the SDP is much closer to him, which is all right, people go where they feel better," said Mrak Taritaš. She said that her party would remain open to the SDP once the biggest opposition party stablised itself.

According to Mrak-Taritaš, in the event that Josipović is again the SDP presidential candidate, the GLAS-led Amsterdam Coalition will analyse the options to establish who of the prospective challengers stands the best chance to unseat the current president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović.

Josipović, the third Croatian president who was in office from mid-February 2010 to mid-February 2015 and a former SDP official, ran for the second term but was defeated by the incumbent president who was nominated by the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ). Grabar-Kitarović's first term expires in a year, however, she has not yet explicitly stated if she would run again.

Krešo Beljak of the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS) said that Josipović's return to the SDP was four years late. He should have returned to the SDP after he gambled away a certain election victory, said Beljak whose party is a member of the Amsterdam Coalition. Beljak said that he was sorry to see that Josipović had wasted away his political career.

Predrag Matić of the SDP said that he was glad to hear Josipovic was returning to the SDP.

Mirando Mrsić, who used to be the head of Josipović's campaign team, said that the left-of-centre option should propose a candidate that can defeat Grabar-Kitarović and that he believed that it could be Zoran Milanović, a former SDP leader.

More news on former president Josipović can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, November 26, 2018 - A round table on the constitutional role of the President of the Republic in public and political life in Croatia was held in Zagreb on Monday, featuring former presidents Stjepan Mesić and Ivo Josipović, as well as the leader of the opposition Civic Liberal Alliance (GLAS), Anka Mrak Taritaš.

Mrak Taritaš said that the incumbent President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović had turned out to be "fake news". "At the time of the election, she appeared quite democratic, while today she is completely different. We have to draw a lesson from this," the GLAS leader said, adding that the current president had only seen her own role through approval ratings and had been campaigning since the start of her term in office.

Mrak Taritaš said that whenever Grabar-Kitarović went on a trip somewhere, she was "ashamed for her", because, unlike her predecessors Josipović and Mesić, the decisions she made were "leading Croatia backwards."

The GLAS leader said it was vitally important that the opposition field a joint candidate for the next presidential election a year from now "to stand up to this madness of populism." For her, the best candidate would be someone from the political centre, "neither from the far left nor from the far right, with political eros and a clear personality to stop the presidential role being reduced to the level of show-business, which has been introduced by Grabar-Kitarović."

Mrak-Taritaš said that the opposition candidate should be a man to avoid the campaign turning into a "who has a better dress or longer eyelashes" contest. "There are important, crucial moments, and I think this is one such moment, when one should put one's ego aside and concentrate on the goal of winning the presidential election," she said.

Mesić and Josipović spoke of their experience during their presidential terms, with Mesić saying that the most difficult decision he had made was when he sent 12 generals into retirement after they presented "a political pamphlet" in the media. "The gist of that pamphlet was: 'We have successfully defended Croatia, we will decide what will happen in it.' That's why I had to react by ordering their retirement and I think I did the right thing," Mesić said.

Josipović said that his most difficult task was to mend relations with neighbours, because when he took office relations with Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina were very bad. He recalled that his first official trip abroad was to Bosnia and Herzegovina where he managed to take representatives of the country's main ethnic groups, Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats, to war crimes sites to pay respects to the victims.

When Josipović returned to Zagreb, he encountered the dissatisfaction of the government and generals, but an opinion poll showed that 75 percent of the public supported his speech in Sarajevo. Soon, he also managed to establish good relations with Serbian president Boris Tadić, even though Tadić had refused to attend Josipović's inauguration over Croatia's recognition of Kosovo.

"Unfortunately, it has turned out that something done in one term in office is not forever. I think that Croatia's present policy towards neighbours is wrong," Josipović said, noting that he was not considering running for president again.

Josipović said he was strongly opposed to the idea of the President of the Republic being elected in parliament. "It's very important not to keep all eggs in the same basket, especially in our cryptopresidential system. We have an almighty prime minister who decides about everything. The President should not be given new powers, but should operationalise the existing ones. In times of crisis, it is important for the President to be independent, and that is possible only if he or she is elected directly," he said.

Josipović said that if he were the President, he would go to the Marrakesh conference next month, adding that he could not see why Croatia was afraid of taking in refugees. He said that those were "the fears of the narrow-minded nationalist right."

Mesić said that he, too, thought that the President should not be elected directly for some time, because if he or she were elected by parliament, the ruling parties would be able to dictate how the President should use his or her powers.

"We need a President, but not one in a checkerboard jersey. Imagine if I had barged into a women's locker room, everyone would have said they I have gone mad," Mesić said. He criticised the current president's policy of dislocating her office to different towns as nonsense.

Mesić called for putting a stop to the glorification of fascism and WWII-era Ustasha ideology in the country. "Antifascist monuments are being knocked down, while government ministers are attending funerals for Ustashas with honours. They are currying favour with Ustasha sympathisers to win elections. We are the only nation in the world that wants to join the losers' camp."

For more on the Croatian politics, click here.

ZAGREB, November 22, 2018 - Former Croatian president Ivo Josipović was presented in Sarajevo on Wednesday with the Isa-Beg Ishakovic Award, which is given to foreign statesmen for promoting peace, understanding and tolerance.

Josipović is the second Croatian recipient of this award. The first was incumbent President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović. Among the other recipients are Slovenian President Borut Pahor, former Austrian president Heinz Fischer, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The award, named after the 15th century Ottoman governor of Bosnia who is considered the founder of Sarajevo as an urban centre, was established in 2002 by the Klepsidra foundation, which promotes Bosnia and Herzegovina's multicultural and multiethnic heritage.

At a ceremony attended, among others, by Bosnian Presidency member Šefik Džaferović and the international community's High Representative Valentin Inzko, the president of the jury said Josipović had not only encouraged dialogue and carefully built Croatian-Bosnian relations but made them mutually beneficial.

Josipović said he saw the award "as a recognition of the way in which I built the relations between our states and peoples." He added that as president he had tried to set a new course of Croatia's foreign policy despite those who did not know how to or want to build peace.

Josipović was the president of Croatia from 2010 to 2015.

For more on former president Josipović, click here.

Ivo Josipović attended a utopian summit in South Korea.

In an interview with Večernji List, the former Croatian President hinted at the possibility of his return...