Rijeka City Assembly constituted in its third attempt

Local elections were held in Croatia on 18 May 2025, with a second round on 1 June. All seats of the county prefects, mayors and municipality heads and members of county, municipal and city councils were up for election.

Two and a half months after the first round of local elections, and after two unsuccessful attempts, the Rijeka City Assembly has finally been constituted. Here’s what a clearly pleased Rijeka Mayor, Ana Rinčić, had to say after the assembly was constituted: "I can happily say that the third time's the charm and that today, in our third attempt, we have constituted the Rijeka City Assembly. I have to say that we assumed the reigns in the city two months ago and that negotiations were long, difficult and exhausting, but that ultimately they ended well. As of today we know have a functional city assembly. I think that it's probably best to leave everything we heard here today behind us and to turn to the future, because the people of Rijeka have lost enough time already. It's time to move forward and to begin adopting decisions."

The key vote to approve Robert Kurelić as the assembly president came from councilor Stefan Mataja Mafrici, a representative from the independent list of former Rijeka Mayor Marko Filipović. Mataja Mafrici had voted against in the first two attempts: "In spite of the fact that my position was opposed to theirs on this issue the entire time, I wouldn't say that this was a betrayal of the voters. Believe me, at least it is my assumption, that in some situations one has to adopt a responsible decision, and in this situation the only responsible decision was to not block the functioning of the city, to not block subsidies for citizens and to continue working ... as things should."

After being appointed the new president of the assembly, Kurelić commented on the negotiating process: "The negotiations are as transparent as they can be. Because there are always things that can be articulated behind closed doors, that perhaps cannot be said publicly in the same way. And every party, not only political, but any party in any negotiations strives to somehow reconcile the interests of those they represent with what is politically feasible. And I believe that everyone did this in good faith."

Source: HRT