Election for Zagreb Mayor could see more than ten candidates in the race

Local elections in Croatia are set to be held at the end of May. As to be expected the biggest interest in the poll is focused on the national capital, Zagreb. The incumbent mayor has faced harsh criticism during his first term over a failure to handle issues such as garbage collection, while simultaneously putting a focus on a woke agenda.

With the local elections set to be held at the end of May, the race for the mayor of Zagreb appears to be heating up. Five candidates have already announced their bid to replace Tomislav Tomašević, they are Ivica Lovrić (Plavi Grad) who was a close aid to former Mayor Milan Bandić, independent candidate Trpimir Goluža, Davor Bernardić from the Servus Zagreb Platform, SDP candidate Branko Kolarić and HDZ candidate Mislav Herman. The focus of their collective campaigns is on addressing the city's problems in chronic traffic jams and garbage collection.

"The biggest problem for citizens is traffic, which is why we have opened our program with the part that deals with traffic. We want to present concrete solutions that are applicable, feasible and prepared professionally," Lovrić said on Sunday.

For his part Goluža says his focus as mayor would be on cleaning the city: "One of my priorities is the construction of a composting plant, because this is a prerequisite for reducing the total amount of waste."

Former SDP Party president Bernardić also wants to address the issue of affordable housing: "Our focus is on solving the waste issue, speeding up public transport, building a high-speed city railway, expanding tram lines and building apartments for rent and sale at affordable prices."

His former party colleague, Branko Kolarić says the SDP is working on ensuring a higher standard of living for Zagreb’s residents: "Someone with a salary of €900 cannot pay €300 to rent a room. We are preparing a model and projections in order to increase citizens' salaries."

Meanwhile, the HDZ’s Herman says the incumbent mayor’s program is little more than a copy-paste of his program: "The Jarun Bridge and numerous other projects are nothing more than amendments that the HDZ offered Tomašević. He rejected them, and is now presenting them as his own."

Another five potential candidates have also hinted at a possible run for Zagreb Mayor.

For his part Mayor Tomašević says that his first mandate was bogged down by the Zagreb earthquake (the earthquake hit on March 22nd 2020 and measured 5.5 on the Richter scale) and the overhauling of the city budget following Bandić's almost twenty year reign. Tomašević says that if he is re-elected the focus of his second term will be on development: "This includes all of the ongoing projects, sports infrastructure, schools, kindergartens and cultural facilities, but also the completion of projects that have been promised for decades, such as the waste management center, Maksimir stadium and the Jarun bridge."

Source: HRT