September the 27th, 2021 - To mark 2021's Lastovo Municipality Day which took place this past Sunday, County Prefect Nikola Dobroslavic arrived with a delegation and spoke about the steps being taken to make Lastovo more connected with the mainland.

As Morski writes, the central part of the celebration of Lastovo Municipality Day was the Formal Session of the Municipal Council held at the House of Culture (Dom Kulture), where the audience was addressed by Prefect Nikola Dobroslavic, who was also an envoy of the President of the Croatian Parliament.

Stressing how important it is that islands like Lastovo, like all other areas across the southernmost Dubrovnik-Neretva County, develops evenly, the prefect said that the first step towards that was the establishment of a daily high-speed line that connects Lastovo with the county centre.

He added that Dubrovnik-Neretva County will continue to support projects that contribute to the development and preservation of the natural beauty of Lastovo and said that at a recent meeting in the municipality, two extremely important contracts for Lastovo were signed - Dubrovnik-Neretva County is set to provide 130,000 kuna for the purchase of equipment for the remediation of pollution in the sea around the island, and with the director of the County Road Administration Ivo Kastelan, a contract for the construction of a local road to Skrivena Luka which will be 2.7 kilometres long and be worth six million kuna was signed.

County Prefect Nikola Dobroslavic also pointed out one of the capital projects as part of Lastovo Municipality Day celebrations, which is the reconstruction of the Port of Ubli worth 60 million kuna, which will begin soon.

With congratulations extended for Lastovo Municipality Day and the feast of St. Kuzma and Damjan, Prefect Nikola Dobroslavic also reminded all those present that the Lastovo Islands Nature Park is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year and congratulated the management of the park, wishing them to continue to wisely continue to lead and preserve the exceptional beauty Lastovo boasts.

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May 17, 2021 – Sunday welcomed the Croatian local elections. The elected officials will hold the political power on city and county levels which in many ways affects the everyday lives of Croatian people more than the national parliament or the president. A look at the elections in Dubrovnik. 

Croatian election results are the main topic this Monday. It has been a slow and quiet campaign compared to most previous ones. This is mainly due to the pandemic and the current financial situation. Without all the bells and whistles, there were some results that surprised the general public. Still, the majority of the winners were as expected. For the vast majority of the towns and counties, the election process is not over. Many of them will have to go into second round of voting to find new mayors and county prefects. The top two candidates with the most votes in the first round will go over to the runoffs for a head-to-head election showdown.

Race for Mayor

As reported by Dubrovacki Vjesnik, both Dubrovnik and Dubrovnik-Neretva County will have to go into runoffs in order to elect the mayor of Dubrovnik and the county prefect. On the city and county level in the Dubrovnik area, the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) is starting round two from the winning position. Mato Frankovic, reigning mayor of Dubrovnik, won the popular vote in the city with 36,7% of votes. Political veteran, Pero Vican finished behind him with 13,54% of votes. He won second place after a neck and neck battle with the former mayor of Dubrovnik, Andro Vlahusic. Considering the gap in results between Frankovic and Vican, the second round of Dubrovnik's race for mayor should confirm the results of the first one. However, everybody in Dubrovnik knows Pero Vican is not a politician to be underestimated.

Results on the County Level

Current county prefect, HDZ's Nikola Dobroslavic, took the win in the first round of voting with an impressive 40,12% of votes. The runner-up was Most party's Bozo Petrov with 21,11%. Petrov is a young, but already established politician. He is a current member of the Croatian Parliament and the leader of the Most party. He is a considerably younger and less experienced competitor than Dobroslavic. With this in mind, it will be an exciting second round of voting in Dubrovnik-Neretva County. The main dilemma before the voters is whether they want more of the same or are looking for a change.

For more news about politics in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

As Morski writes on the 2nd of June, 2019, Dubrovnik-Neretva County prefect Nikola Dobroslavić attended a public consultation on the national plan for the development of coastal maritime traffic by 2030.

The Croatian Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure, together with the Faculty of Maritime Studies of the University of Rijeka initiated a project for the development of a mid-term strategic document entitled ''National Development Plan for Coastal Maritime Traffic by 2030'', which is now in its final stages of creation, and which is above all very necessary for any future financing of Croatia's multiple port projects and their required infrastructure from EU funds.

''It's good that such a plan has been launched to come up with a solution [for the direct Dubrovnik-Lastovo connection]. We have an indented coastline and numerous islands, and the connection between the islands and the mainland is very important to us. On our part, we've come up with a number of projects that need to contribute to linking [the mainland and the islands], and we've prepared projects for eight new ports that will create connectivity prerequisites.

These ports are included the national plan, and it's important that other ports are evaluated. It's important for us to have a liner connection, especially to our islands by sea. It is important that the islands also have vessels with a good capacity and speed and that they have sufficient number of links,'' said Prefect Nikola Dobroslavić, pointing out that the first step has now been taken in getting a new direct Dubrovnik-Lastovo ferry line.

''I believe that the next national plan will adopt all of the other necessary conditions and that ultimately all of the stakeholders will be satisfied,'' concluded Dobroslavić.

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