ZAGREB, 6 March, 2021 - The Homeland Movement (DP) leader, Miroslav Škoro, on Saturday presented his agenda as a mayoral candidate in the Croatian capital city of Zagreb, and on that occasion he said if elected, he would provide free-of-charge services in the city's kindergartens as of this autumn.

"I assure you that the Jakuševac landfill will be closed and that waste management will be improved," Škoro said in Zagreb's Cvjetni Trg Square.

He also promised the construction of a state-of-the-art hospital and of a national stadium which could maybe named after the late footballer Zlatko Cici Kranjčar.

One of Škoro's promises is the reduction of the city surcharge by three percentage points.

"One epoch is over and it is high time we introduced a new model of managing Zagreb in accordance with the needs of its residents and the 21st century," said Škoro, who confirmed speculations that he would run for the Zagreb mayor a few days after the funeral of the mayor Milan Bandić.

Škoro also expressed his readiness to make a coalition with everybody provided that there is no trade-off or blackmailing. 

ZAGREB, 5 March, 2021 - Davor Nađi, who intends to run for Zagreb mayor in the May local election, on Friday spoke about cuts in the city budget that would enable the abolishment of a surtax, while downsizing the city administration, reducing transfers to citizens and rationalising operations to save HRK 3.2 billion.

"The Zagreb City administration and the city-owned utility companies have about 32,000 employees," Nađi, a candidate of the Fokus party, told a press conference, adding that that number had increased three-fold since 2011.

"We plan to reduce the number of employees to a maximum 28,000 by dismissing people hired to do unnecessary work and through severance deals for early retirement and for redundant staff," Nađi said, adding that that could lead to a saving of HRK 650 million.

There is room to save an additional one billion kuna through cost rationalisation, Nađi believes.

A total of HRK 400 million could be saved from public procurement procedures, while cuts in subsidies and allowances for citizens could help save HRK 700 million. HRK 300 million could be saved annually by reducing or abolishing stay-at-home parent allowance, he said.

"Social transfers are just a way of buying citizens and those allowances have tripled since 2011," said Nađi.

Better management of city property could increase revenue by at least HRK 600 million, he said.

"When we draw the line, we arrive at HRK 3.2 billion, of which HRK 1 billion annually could be used for tax reliefs, HRK 1 billion for the city's financial stabilisation and the remainder for an increase in investments," he concluded

ZAGREB, 5 March, 2021 - The opposition Homeland Movement party on Friday confirmed that its leader Miroslav Škoro would be running for the post of Zagreb Mayor in local elections set for May this year.

Škoro won 465,704 votes in the 2019 presidential election and under his leadership the Homeland Movement won 16 seats in the 2020 parliamentary election, the party recalled.

Škoro will present his candidacy for Zagreb Mayor on Saturday, 6 March.

ZAGREB, 5 March, 2021 - The ruling HDZ party's candidate for Zagreb Mayor, Davor Filipović, said on Thursday he was confident of his victory in the May local election because his model of running the city was based on responsible financial operations, transparent post-earthquake reconstruction and capital projects.

"I enjoy the strong support of the HDZ branch in Zagreb, (HDZ) president (Andrej) Plenković and the entire HDZ," Filipović said after a session of the party branch on Thursday evening.

Plenković, too, attended the session and the subsequent news conference but did not make any statements.

"All of the recent attacks against me are due to my political rivals being very nervous. I am confident that the new model of governance that I will offer, which puts emphasis on responsible financial operations, transparent reconstruction and capital projects, will be recognised by voters and that I will be elected mayor in May," said Filipović, adding that he would present the key elements of his platform in the next few weeks.

He went on to say that all information on how city budget funds are spent would be made available on the city administration's website, that the process of post-earthquake reconstruction would be fully transparent, and that heads of city departments and directors of city-owned companies would have to make their declarations of assets public.

Filipović also said that "all members of the Opposition" would be included in the supervision of public tenders for major projects.

Škoro will go down in history as the bravest Croatian politician

Commenting on reports that Homeland Movement leader Miroslav Škoro would run for Zagreb Mayor, Filipović said that "Škoro will go down in history as the bravest politician in our country."

"After summoning courage for months to announce his candidacy, it was only (on Wednesday), after he saw for himself that the late mayor Milan Bandić was buried, that he did so," said Filipović.

"Škoro is also known for having run stalls at Zagreb Advent, and we all know what one had to do to be allowed to operate stalls at the Christmas market. Having one stall is evidently not enough any more, one needs to run five, six or ten stalls. Zagreb residents know who charged the most expensive parking tickets by a hospital," Filipović said, an allusion to Škoro's having had a stake in a company operating a parking lot by Zagreb's Merkur hospital, which he eventually sold.

ZAGREB, 4 March, 2021 - Tomislav Tomašević, the Green-Left Bloc's candidate for Mayor of Zagreb, said on Thursday he was prepared to deal with the legacy and network of the late mayor Milan Bandić, following comments that Bandić's death has shaken his position as an election favourite.

"Bandić is not the mayor any more, but his network, his legacy and problems are still present. We have been preparing for long to deal with these problems. We have entered politics not to be against, but in favour, to deal with the problems and raise the standards of living in Zagreb. Also, we want to change Zagreb in order to change Croatia," Tomašević said.

The present management model in Zagreb did not emerge with Bandić nor will it end with him. It will end only if true change occurs, and we are the sole guarantor of that, he added.

"The coalition between the HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union) and Bandić has been stable for five years. Who ran Zagreb before Bandić? The HDZ. Who rules Croatia on the basis of clientelism and corruption? The HDZ. If we look at all the local 'sheriffs' in Croatia, the model of local 'sheriffs' must be dismantled. The best place to show this is the City of Zagreb, because it is a symbol," Tomašević said.

He said he did not think he was politically incorrect because he had not attended Bandić's funeral and signed the book of condolence in City Hall. He said he had extended his condolences to the family, cancelled all his campaign activities and refrained from making public statements until today.

Tomašević said that he and his associates had been working on the election programme for Zagreb for months. He said he believed that it would be the most comprehensive of all programmes in the forthcoming election, due in May, and that he would present it to the public soon.

Debt to be stabilised by public procurement monitoring

Tomašević said that the city's budget deficit had officially reached HRK 1.3 billion (€173.3m), but noted they had not yet received the report on budget execution for last year, which was very difficult because of the earthquake, the coronavirus pandemic and the socio-economic crisis.

One of the main ways to stabilise and reduce the debt is to reorganise and monitor public procurement, he said. "My message to the private sector is that there will be a level playing field for all, no more favourites," Tomašević said, expressing confidence that in this way the city would cut expenses by HRK 600 million (€80m) annually.

He announced a review of all detrimental contracts with private companies, and said he expected all heads of city departments and all management boards of city companies to offer their resignations, after which public calls for those positions would be issued.

ZAGREB, 3 March, 2021 - Leader of the Homeland Movement and Deputy Parliament Speaker Miroslav Škoro will run for mayor of Zagreb in the coming local election, sources from that party unofficially confirmed for Hina on Wednesday evening.

More information will be known in a few days time and Škoro will not be making any statements to the media today.

Ove the past few days Škoro has made vague statements about his candidacy. On Saturday he said that everyone in the Homeland Movement is in the game when it comes to running for Zagreb mayor, including himself.

"Each member of the Homeland Movement has to be prepared to be in the game and that's the principle we function by," Škoro said then.

Attending late Mayor Milan Bandić's funeral today, Škoro said that the candidate from his party would be announced in a few days' time.

HDZ's Mato Frankovic is the new Mayor of the Pearl of the Adriatic