ZAGREB, June 8, 2019 - Several hundred citizens rallied in Zagreb on Saturday outside the entrance to the city's horse racing venue to protest against Mayor Milan Bandić's decision to build what is colloquially called the Zagreb Manhattan project in that part of the city, warning the city authorities not to deprive them of that green area and the mayor to let them be.

Not long after Bandić announced that the Zagreb Manhattan project would be implemented in the area between Zagreb's Jadranski Most bridge to the west, the Sava River to the north, the Zagreb Trade Fair to the south and the INA company headquarters and the Most Slobode bridge to the east, equestrian associations and horse owners were informed that they had to move all of 147 horses from the city's racing venue.

Today's protest was organised by civic associations, and among the protesters were numerous children.

One of the banners displayed by the protesters carried Bandić's statement from 2018 in which he said that the city racecourse would not be touched as long as he was the mayor.

Ivana Ljubić, head of the Pony Express equestrian club, said that the racecourse was a second home to more than 500 children who did not own a horse and came there to ride.

Ninety percent of equestrian events in the country are held on the Zagreb racecourse and the place "is much more than a big meadow suitable for building commercial buildings with a high tower like the one in Mordor, offering a good view of subjects."

Ljubić recalled that town planners, too, opposed the project, that the racecourse was of strategic importance for children and the city, and that civic associations would not give up their fight for it.

As for the mayor's announcement that horses would be relocated from the racecourse to two equestrian venues in the area of Zagreb, Ljubic said that no private racecourse, regardless of its capacity, could take over the role of the city's main racing venue as the equestrian centre.

Another activist, Vesna Grgić, said that Bandić was behaving as a farmers' market vendor, "selling parts of Zagreb to whomever gives the highest bid."

In a comment on Bandić's statement that the city would not finance anyone's hobbies, a remark directed at people protesting against the closing down of the racecourse, activist Tomislav Vukoja said: "Nobody has asked us - the taxpayers who fill the city budget - what we think about the plan. If the city money was not spent on the unlawful hiring of 'relatives' who are incompetent but receive pay - there would be money for various hobbies."

The organisers of the protest said that until June 22 they would be collecting signatures for a petition to be given to the mayor, and activist Gordana Pasanec of the New Left party said the next protest would be held outside the city assembly.

According to the organisers, the protest was attended by more than 1,000 people, while police did not give any information on their number, saying only that there were no reports of incidents.

The protest was also supported by members of the Opposition in the Zagreb City Assembly - Renato Petek of the Forward Croatia - Progressive Alliance party and Gordan Maras of the Social Democratic Party.

In March this year, the city authorities said that Eagle Hills, a group of investors from Abu Dhabi, was the likely strategic investor in a possible development project colloquially called the Zagreb Manhattan.

More Zagreb news can be found in the Politics section.

The Zagreb.info website writes about the new season of movie projections on the Tuškanac Summer Stage, starting this weekend, on June 8th!

The first event of the new season is the guest open-air program by the Animafest Zagreb Animated Film Festival: Take me to the moon, which will start at 9:30 in the evening. That same evening the projection of the restored original version of one of the most significant movies of all times, A Trip to the Moon by Georges Méliès, created in 1902. Many other significant titles will be shown as well, such as Vukotić's Cow on the Moon, short Danish SF film Solar Walk, and A Grand Day Out, the first in the series of the famous stop-animation series Wallace and Gromit by the four-time Academy Award winner Nick Park.

After the animated film celebration, from June 10th until 13th the Tuškanac Summer Stage will welcome the program Motovunizacija!, bringing you the best movies from the Motovun Film Festival. The Angel, a biographical crime drama, directed by a young Argentine director Luis Ortega and produced by famous Pedro Almodóvar will be shown. Italian comedy Perfect Strangers by Paolo Genovese, Russian drama The Student by Kirill Serebrennikov and Spanish drama The Fury of a Patient Man will be shown in the following days.

And, after those two programmes, numerous recent hits will be shown throughout the summer, including Rocketman, Elton John's biography by Dexter Fletcher, The Hustle, a remake of an old comedy hit Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Dragged Across Concrete, starring Mel Gibson and Vince Vaughn. Also, the final films in both the X-Man and the Avengers franchises will be shown on Tuškanac Summer Stage.

In late June and early July, the Fantastic Film Festival will take over Tuškanac, and during July, the Review of European Film and the selection of films from the Zagreb Film Festival will be shown. In August, a series of musical films will be shown, organised by Time Out Croatia and the Tuškanac Summer Stage.

Most screenings will be starting at 9:30 pm, except for some movies from the Fantastic Film Festival, which will start at 10 pm. Tickets will be sold at Tuškanac, starting at 8 pm each day when there's a screening, at 30 kunas (Animafest Open Air program tickets are 25 kunas). The entire Tuškanac Summer Stage is dog-friendly.

Find out more at their Facebook Page: Ljetna Pozornica Tuškanac

One of the most eagerly anticipated Zagreb parties of the year took place at the British Embassy in Zagreb on June 6, 2019, as the Queen's birthday was celebrated along with a message #BeyondPlastic.

I think that if there was one event in the Zagreb calendar I could choose to enjoy pleasant company and catch up with MANY people all in one go, it would have to be the Queen's Birthday party, hosted each year at the residence of British Ambassador, His Excellency, Andrew Dalgleish.

I am sure the quality and free availability of the gin plays a part for this correspondent, but the turnout is always excellent, the company engaging, and the ample ambassadorial gardens a pleasure to walk around. 

This year's celebration was no exception, and popular Ambassador Dalgleish spent the evening doing the rounds and ensuring his guests were enjoying themselves. 

The Ambassador's speech (listen to it above) focused on the bonds that connect Croatia in the UK. He joked that he had expected last year's speech to be the last as a member of the EU, but that he was still he. He also showed off his famous socks, having lost a bet with the Croatian ambassador to London last July, whereby the ambassador on the losing side of the World Cup semi-final committed to wearing the socks of the opposing country the next day. 

In addition to celebrating Britain's longest-serving monarch, the British Embassy was also pushing its #BeyondPlastic campaign, to highlight the need for drastic action regarding single-use plastic. With more than 8 million tons of plastic dumped in the world's seas last year alone, the situation is alarming, and the British Embassy is running a campaign to encourage the banning of all single-use plastic.  

Some more photos taken by expert photographer Goran Hrubi, who clearly imbibed less gin than myself...

You can follow the British Embassy in Zagreb on Facebook. 

Just two days before American Airlines lands in Dubrovnik, connecting the United States and Croatia for the first time in 28 years, Croatia's Minister of Tourism Gari Cappelli expressed that this hopefully won’t be the only route from the US and that Zagreb could see love from the Big Apple soon, reports Ex Yu Aviation on June 6, 2019. 

"Following the arrangement with American Airlines between Philadelphia and Dubrovnik this summer, which will act as a trial run, we are already in advanced talks for the introduction of a nonstop service from New York to Zagreb. I hope that we will have this route operational next summer. The service to Zagreb will most likely be seasonal during its first year of operations, while year-round flights could commence as early as the second year. As a result, we would have seasonal flights from the United States to Dubrovnik and year-round operations to Zagreb,” said Cappelli to HRT. 

You might also recall that Zagreb Airport General Manager Huseyin Bahadir Bedir is also keen on connecting the two destinations.

"New York is a destination we are focusing on. We are in talks with airlines and we expect for the route to be launched. However, a bit more patience is required for a final agreement to be reached on when the flights will commence and who will be the operating carrier. Long haul flights are very demanding for airlines, both operationally and financially, and therefore they must be carefully planned. There are some airports in Europe which are two or three times larger than ours but have no long haul flights operated by some of the world's leading carriers. We have set the bar high in attracting some of the world's best airlines to Zagreb, with nonstop services to North America and Asia. Our aim is to have a quality and long-term relationship with each airline we cooperate with".

It seems that all talks are positive ahead of the American Airlines flight, and it is even more apparent that this route certainly won’t stand alone. The world’s largest airline has even said it is open to the possibility of connecting the US and Croatian further. 

"Wherever we see opportunities and demand, we'll go. As with the opening of our Dubrovnik - Philadelphia line, we are very specific about demand. Central Europe has the greatest growth potential. We are preparing to add more and more new links. We want to continue to lead the market. We will look closely at the results for the first year of operations. We are always looking at new opportunities to grow our network to ensure we offer service to where our customers wish to go,” the airline said. 

From next Saturday, American Airlines will connect Croatia and the United States for the first time in almost 30 years as the seasonal line between Philadelphia and Dubrovnik will begin.

On June 7th at 18:10 local time, passengers will travel on the 209-seat Boeing 767-300ER aircraft from the Philadelphia international airport, and will land in Dubrovnik at 9:30 am the next day. The flight duration is 9 hours and 15 minutes. The first flight from Dubrovnik to Philadelphia takes off on June 8th at 11:40 am and is 10 hours and 25 minutes.

"American Airlines is very pleased with the bookings for our new flight between Dubrovnik and Philadelphia. While it is performing in line with our expectations, it is too early for us to comment on our 2020 summer schedule as that planning process is still being done,” the airline said to Ex Yu Aviation. 

Flights to Dubrovnik will run on Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays, and from Dubrovnik on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Mondays. Recall, bookings were so good on this route that American Airlines announced they had to boost operations back in April. Namely, in September, the service will operate four times a week until the end of the month. 

To read more about travel in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page. 

ZAGREB, June 5, 2019 - The Zagreb Fair and the Celje Fair from Slovenia on Wednesday signed a memorandum of cooperation and understanding, which marked the opening of an international conference, "Exhibition Industry - Disruptor or Disruptee", at the Zagreb Trade Fair Centre.

The document was signed by Zagreb Fair director Dina Tomšić and Celje Fair Management Board chair Franc Pangerl.

Noting that the global exhibition industry amounted to around 167 billion euros, Tomšić said that in the past three years the exhibition industry in Croatia had almost been invisible.

"After 11 years of negative business results, the Zagreb Fair has started to achieve positive results. We are only halfway to the industry's recovery and its full recovery requires investment in digitisation, new competencies and a new congress centre," said Tomšić.

Pangerl said that he expected the two fairs and countries to step up their cooperation. "We plan to hold meetings at our autumn fair. We hope for good cooperation at our energy fair in April next year. We have several good global projects which are financially interesting and we can share all of that through cooperation on successful projects," said Pangerl.

Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandić, who attended the conference, said that a new congress centre would be built on the premises of the Zagreb Trade Fair Centre, which would be revamped.

More Zagreb news can be found in the Lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, June 3, 2019 - The Green Action (ZA) civil society organisation on Monday once again warned that the "Zagreb City" project is contrary to the city's physical and urban plans and that its implementation requires destroying the Hippodrome horse racing venue, building in green zones and destroying at least three pavilions of the Zagreb Trade Fair Centre that have the status of architectural monuments.

In response to the announcement that the hippodrome would be closed down, ZA has called out Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandić, demanding that he stop ignoring legal procedures.

"Regardless of Bandić's standard behaviour in which procedures are a mere formality, this project requires the issuance of an entire set of permits as well as the adoption of amendments to physical plans. ZA will participate in the process and will contest each step that could lead to devastation and disregard for public interest in physical planning," ZA said in a press release.

Bandić intends to amend the relevant physical plans in order to adapt them to the "Zagreb City" project without taking note of public or expert opinion, ZA said.

People using the services of the hippodrome have already been given notice to vacate the premises to make way for developers even though "this is evidently one of Bandić's megalomaniac ideas involving his friends form Dubai who have already caused mass protests against a similar project in Belgrade," ZA underscored.

The president of the Croatian Equestrian Association, Mladen Brezić, said that they had been advised that any lease contracts regarding the use of the hippodrome had to be terminated by 1 December.

"The Sports Act says that if a particular sports venue ceases to exist, a replacement facility has to be secured. The only exception to that would be if the land where the hippodrome is located is proclaimed to be in the public interest," he underscored.

He added that it was unacceptable to have to relocate to private facilities without adequate infrastructure and warned that if the hippodrome was closed down that could mean the end of equestrian sports in Croatia.

A protest rally has been announced for Saturday, 8 June against closing down the hippodrome. Brezić said that the protest was not being organised by equestrian clubs but by citizens.

More Zagreb news can be found in the Lifestyle section.

June 3, 2019 - Momentum is building in the relationship between the Croatian diaspora and the entrepreneurs in Croatia, as G2, Meeting Next Generation, returns for its 5th edition later this year.

One of the more interesting dynamics in Croatia in recent times has been the attempt to engage the business potential of Croatia's rich and influential diaspora with entrepreneurs in the Homeland. More than 30 billion euro has been sent to Croatia from the diaspora since 1991 and last year diaspora remittances exceeded foreign investment into the country. 

The recent 2nd International Conference on Diaspora Tourism in Split was an unqualified success, and the many speakers talking about their successful return to Croatia filled the room with positivity and great connections. As a foreign fly on the wall of the conference, here were my impressions on a fascinating couple of days in Split. 

It is, however, not the only diaspora conference in the Croatian calendar... 

Last November, I attended G2.4, Meeting Second Generation, a business-oriented conference connecting opportunities between the diaspora and local entrepreneurs. The G2 was in its fourth year, and I was impressed both at the positivity and also the opportunities that seemed to be there. The relationship between the diaspora and the Homeland is growing, and - just as in Split - it was a pleasure to observe progress from distance. 

This year's G2 conference will take place one more in Zagreb, from November 4-6, as has been announced on the official G2 website:

This year, the fifth Meeting G2 conference will be held in November. Please mark this down in your calendars from the 4th to the 6th of November and make the most of the time to investigate business opportunities and potential business partners. Last year, more than 200 participants attended the event, including more than 70 representatives of Croatian owned businesses from all around the world. This year, we expect an even larger turnout to attend the event to voice their opinions on the goals of the Conference, build a great atmosphere and create a story that connects all Croatians around the world. We will brief you about the conference program and early bird prices.

WHO ARE WE?

A multidisciplinary team of Croatians both in our Homeland and abroad whose main goal is to connect business people from Croatia and its diáspora in order to enhance the diaspora’s investment in the Homeland.

WHY US?

Because we know that Croatia has enormous potential which is still to be developed with its already fantastic quality of life and because we believe that Croatia’s population is 8 million people and not just 4.5!

OUR MISSION

To connect Croatians abroad with people and business opportunities in Croatia via practical online and offline knowledge-sharing, matchmaking and networking forums.

OUR VISION

A future where possibilities, opportunities and dreams of doing business with or in the homeland will drive a new era of Croatian economic development, growth and productivity.

To learn more about the 2019 G2 conference, visit the official website. 

ZAGREB, June 1, 2019 - Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandić on Saturday toured the construction site of a new cableway at the foot of Mt Medvednica overlooking Zagreb.

Bandić said the project amounted to close to 600 million kuna and that efforts would be made to complete it by the end of May 2020, when, he said, the reconstruction of the roundabout in Zagreb's Remetinec neighbourhood could be completed as well.

He recalled that work on the new cableway, which will replace the previous, 35-year-old cable railway, started in March and that it would be one of the most modern cableways in Europe.

Asked if the Zagreb Holding multi-utility conglomerate would obtain a loan for the cableway project, Bandić said the project would be financed with a loan and with EU funds. I believe that at least 50% of the necessary funding will be grants, he said.

Asked about recordings of his and his associates' conversations that could be heard in a trial for unlawful hiring in the city government, Bandić said that he was proud of those recordings because he had acted in line with his powers. "The mayor has the right to promote those who work well, unfortunately I can't sanction those who do not work, and the mayor has the right to hire his associates." He added that he was certain that his work style would secure him another term in office.

Bandić, who today marked the 19th anniversary of his stepping into office as mayor, was also asked to comment on the result of his Work and Solidarity Party in the May 26 election for the European Parliament, in which it secured 1.97% of the vote. "If I worked less in Zagreb, I would have fared better in the EU election," he said.

The mayor would not say if the result was discouraging, adding that the party would discuss it on Monday and that he would be able to say more then.

More Zagreb news can be found in the Lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, May 31, 2019 - Film producer and two-time Oscar winner Branko Lustig said on Friday that he was very moved by being awarded the title of an honorary citizen at a special meeting of Zagreb City Assembly on Zagreb City Day observed on May 31.

"I am very touched by this attention and so many of you here. I didn't expect this... I am touched and cannot express what I feel for Zagreb, for this community and particularly toward Mayor Milan Bandić because I always feel that he is not just a mayor but a friend who would do anything for me when it is hardest but also when I fell well," Lustig told reporters after the award ceremony.

Lustig was awarded with the title for his exceptional contribution to promoting the values of a democratic society, the art of film and a culture of understanding between those who are different and in that way Croatia and the City of Zagreb will be in his debt forever.

Lustig was born to a Jewish family in Osijek in 1932. During WWII he was detained in Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, weighing only 30 kg when he was freed. Most of his family were killed in concentration camps all over Europe.

He won the Academy Award for best producer in 1993 for Steven Spielberg's "Schindler's List" and in 2000 for Ridley Scott's "Gladiator". He donated his "Schindler's List" Oscar to the Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Centre in Jerusalem in 2015.

“My number is A 3317. I am a Holocaust survivor. It is a long way from Auschwitz to this stage. I saw many people die and their last words were, ‘Be a witness to my murder. Tell the world how I died Remember,’ Lustig said when he received the Oscar for "Schindler's List," in 1993.

Zagreb is not the first Croatian city to have named Lustig an honorary citizen. Osijek did so in 2010 and Čakovec in 2017. Former Croatian president Franjo Tuđman decorated Lustig in 1994.

In 2014, Lustig was decorated by the president of France and ranked the 29th best film producer of all times by the eminent magazine The Daily Beast.

Since 2008, Lustig has been the president of the Festival of Tolerance - Jewish Film Festival Zagreb.

More Zagreb news can be found in the Lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, May 31, 2019 - Zagreb's Commercial Court ordered an interim measure according to which the Zagreb Film Festival (ZFF) organisation is permitted to remain in the Europa cinema for the time being, ZFF reported on Friday.

A day after the last screening was held at the downtown cinema and just before the premises were vacated, Zagreb's Commercial Court delivered an interim measure according to which ZFF does not need to vacate the premises pending a final court decision.

"ZFF still hopes that in the period to come it will manage to establish dialogue with the City authorities and find a solution that will satisfy both sides and above all the citizens of Zagreb and Europa cinema's public," ZFF said.

City authorities in April decided to close the cinema on June 1 for renovations, despite the fact that no such plans exist and strong legal grounds to extend the contract, the cinema claimed then and citizens organised a protest to express their dissatisfaction with the announcement that the popular cinema would be closed.

ZFF sued the City requesting a new lease contract. However, all their attempts to contact City authorities failed.

The suit was filed on the grounds that the lessor was obliged to provide a new lease to the existing tenant if all obligations had been fulfilled until then, which ZFF claims it has proved a number of times.

More Zagreb news about can be found in the Lifestyle section.