The 2021 native elections in Croatia have been an unprecedented success for inexperienced and left political forces, particularly within the capital of Zagreb. Headed by the political platforms Zagreb je naš (Zagreb is ours, ZJN) and Možemo (We are able to), the Inexperienced-Left Coalition gained 40.83% of the favored vote, gaining 23 out of 48 seats within the Zagreb Metropolis Meeting. Its mayoral candidate, Tomislav Tomašević, attracted nearly 200,000 voters within the run-off, a file quantity. Success was additionally achieved on the communal ranges of presidency, the place the coalition obtained the perfect end in 16 out of 17 district councils and 101 out of 218 native committee councils.
The Inexperienced-Left Coalition took over Zagreb after 20 years of rule by Milan Bandić, who whereas mayor had been investigated in reference to a collection of high-profile corruption circumstances, and who even spent a number of months of his mayoralty in jail. Over six consecutive phrases in workplace, Bandić captured town by creating an intricate community of shoppers in numerous private and non-private firms. To maintain the clientelist equipment working, town authorities abjectly ignored public curiosity defunding fundamental infrastructure, decreasing the standard of public providers and prioritizing the pursuits of personal buyers’ in city growth and planning.
The 2021 victory gained worldwide consideration not solely due to the extent of well-liked opposition to a dramatic case of native state seize, but in addition the relative significance of the capital in a closely centralised nation reminiscent of Croatia. With round 1 / 4 of the nation’s inhabitants residing within the Zagreb metropolitan space and an annual finances of round 2.2 billion euros, the political signficance of town goes far past its borders.
View of the Richter high-rises in southern Zagreb. Supply: Wikimedia Commons
Street to energy
By the tip of what turned out to be his last mandate, the political atmosphere had turn into more and more threatening for Bandić. The 5.5 magnitude earthquake that hit Zagreb in March 2020 proved catastrophic for town, damaging giant elements of the previous city and a number of other neighbourhoods closest to the epicentre. Though Zagreb is situated in a zone of excessive seismic danger, town authorities was totally unprepared and proved incapable of finishing up well timed and environment friendly reconstruction. Mixed with the general sense of disaster provoked by the Covid 19 pandemic, the results of the earthquake considerably undermined Bandić’s reputation. His sudden loss of life at first of 2021 spelled the tip of his political celebration, whose title and identification revolved solely across the persona of its chief.
Nonetheless, beneficial political circumstances weren’t the only real purpose for the success of the Inexperienced Left. A lot was all the way down to long-term and systematic organising on the bottom. Though fashioned only some months earlier than the 2017 native election in Zagreb, ZJN gathered teams and people with ten to fifteen years of expertise in activism, together with varied social actions and advocacy NGOs. Various occasions and processes performed a task within the articulation of the activists’ methods and ways. An important of those was the battle in opposition to the large-scale neoliberal redevelopment of Varšavska Avenue in central Zagreb between 2006 and 2010. The leftwing activist discipline continued to develop in succeeding years by way of new organisations and collectives rising in reference to pupil protests in opposition to the defunding of public increased training in 2009. Later, in 2014, a coalition of organisations and commerce unions efficiently stopped the privatisation of Croatian Motorways. Mixed with constant disappointment in disinterested and indifferent centre-left events, these experiences led the activists’to progressively reorient their technique in direction of the electoral competitors.
As a result of its expertise and marketing campaign abilities, ZJN and its coalition companions managed to win 4 seats within the Metropolis Meeting in 2017 with only some months of preparation. Regardless of having solely 4 seats below its management, ZJN quickly positioned itself as the primary challenger to Bandić. Many of the opposition events have been both utterly passive within the metropolis meeting or didn’t confront the Bandić administration on any substantive points. The ZJN marketing campaign was revolutionary in that it insisted on questions of entry to public providers, high quality of public infrastructure, and concrete issues particular to every metropolis district. As a substitute of attempting to accomodate to the standard framework of political battle in Croatia, which revolves round points reminiscent of non secular and nationwide identification, and the legacy of the wars of the nineties, the Inexperienced-Left Coalition tried to attract extra public consideration to inequality, staff’ rights and theaccessibility of public providers.
In early 2019, on the event of the EU Parliamentary Election, a part of the activists based Možemo as complementary celebration to ZJN on the nationwide stage. Regardless of gaining just one.79% of the vote, Možemo slowly however steadily raised its public profile by tactically emphasising its exercise on the subjects that different oppositional political events have been ignoring. In 2020, after forming a Inexperienced-Left coalition with a number of different small political events, it achieved 6.99% of the favored vote, successful six seats within the Croatian parliament. The entry of the Inexperienced-Left coalition into parliament additional consolidated its visibility within the mainstream media and boosted its electoral prospects. As a result of its enlargement to the nationwide stage, within the 2021 native elections, the Inexperienced-Left coalition not solely gained in Zagreb but in addition succeeded in coming into eight metropolis councils, 4 county assemblies and even gained the mayoral seat in Pazin.
Zagreb je naš and Možemo aren’t any exceptions within the post-Yugoslav area. Related circumstances of recent left political events will be present in different international locations, significantly Slovenia and Serbia. Originating in social actions, collectives and non-governmental organisations established within the Nineties and 2000s, many activists and activist teams have modified their focus over the last decade from nonelectoral technique, (i.e. advocacy, litigation and protest campaigns) to a method based mostly principally on working for workplace. Impressed by high-profile circumstances reminiscent of Barcelona en Comú, Podemos and Syriza, activist teams within the area have made quite a few makes an attempt to mix movement-based organising with party-based organising. Nonetheless, the victory of the Inexperienced-Left Coalition in 2021 was the primary time one among them had gained a possibility to take over an important government workplace nearly independently of established liberal and centre-left events.
Some vital victories
In a metropolis ravaged by long-term mismanagement, many issues have needed to be addressed urgently. Town’s elementary infrastructural weaknesses had been ignored for many years: visitors congestion is at tipping level, the water provide community is actually exploding attributable to lack of upkeep, and housing costs are uncontrolled. Town was on the point of chapter when ZJN took over from the Bandić administration, that means that it’s going to take years for the brand new administration to totally restore the fundamental functioning of town.
Twenty-one months into the federal government of Možemo in Zagreb, it’s clear that the expectations accompanying the resounding well-liked mandate are usually not straightforward to fulfil. The centrality of Zagreb implies that all the tasks undertaken by town administration are intently scrutinised by the nationwide media, exposing the Inexperienced-Left Coalition to fixed assault.
However the brand new administration has already achieved a number of vital targets. Its precedence from the outset has been the reconstruction of colleges and different public establishments broken within the 2020 earthquake. Reconstruction, which the earlier administration barely even began, has needed to be environment friendly and quick, not least due to the strict deadlines stipulated in by the EU Solidarity Fund, the place many of the funding is coming from. By the start of 2023, town has been in a position to totally reconstruct and reopen all of the elementary colleges broken within the earthquake.
The administration has began introducing many long-awaited reforms, most prominently of its waste administration system, which performed an important half within the former mayor’s clientelist community. The outsourcing of varied components of the system is being reversed and incentives launched that, in the long term, ought to inspire residents to type and recycle greater than earlier than. The brand new administration has additionally began to plan an formidable funding cycle to enhance transport infrastructure and the water provide community.
Along with reforms of public providers, the general public establishments and firms managed by town have all reinstated collective agreements with workers, growing salaries and ameliorating working circumstances. Notably vital was reversing the predominant development of outsourcing labour. Employees in all public establishments and firms with outsourced contracts have been promptly insourced and provided common contracts. Regardless of the general enhancements, nevertheless, the long-term neglect of staff’ rights and the strain of the reforms prompted waste administration staff to strike on the finish of January. Profitable negotiations between unions, administration and town administration introduced the strike to an finish after 4 days, however it confirmed that staff’ rights should proceed to be prioritised.
Among the many reforms in social and healthcare coverage, one of the vital vital modifications has been the reintroduction of entry to abortion on the Sveti Duh Scientific Hospital, one of many largest hospitals within the nation and owned by town of Zagreb. Though abortion has been legally regulated since 1978, entry has been hindered lately by a rise within the variety of ‘conscientious objectors’ amongst medical professionals throughout Croatia. In 2015, Sveti Duh turned one of many hospitals to cease endeavor abortions, in spite of everything of its medical personnel refused to take part within the procedures. The brand new administration changed the employees and reintroduced the abortion clinic, an achievement that has a selected symbolic worth within the context of an growing conservative backlash in opposition to ladies’s rights in Croatia.
One other notable coverage measure was abolishing the ‘parent-educator’ scheme. Launched in 2016, this technique of monetary compensation for unemployed mother and father of preschool-aged youngsters turned out not simply to be extraordinarily costly but in addition counterproductive. As a substitute of pumping round 90 million euros a yr into sustaining the measure, the brand new administration shifted the funds in direction of growing the accessibility and capability of kindergartens. The choice was very positively obtained by the general public, particularly given its redistributive function. Nonetheless, a coalition of ‘parent-educators’ and conservative Christian advocacy teams issued a authorized complaintand succeeded in quickly reversing town’s determination. Whereas town did ultimately handle to abolish the scheme, the case confirmed how even very fashionable selections can simply be challenged.
Predicaments of energy
Though all these reforms and measures have been contained within the marketing campaign manifesto of the Inexperienced-Left Coalition, they’ve provoked varied criticisms. The administration has been confronted with a big backlash from political opponents, together with non-public firms inquisitive about preserving the previous outsourcing practices, and far-right and conservative NGOs that really feel threatened by the Inexperienced-Left agenda. The truth that the governing celebration on the nationwide stage is the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) can also be an impediment. Because the dominant rightwing political celebration and head of the nationwide authorities for twenty-four out of the final 32 years, the HDZ obsessively tries to protect the established order. Reforms undertaken by town authorities are perceived as a menace, even when the Inexperienced-Left Coalition doesn’t competing instantly with the HDZ for votes.
Put up-earthquake, the HDZ proved incapable of finishing up its obligations within the reconstructing non-public housingassigned assigned to it by a particular regulation. Though town administration tried to be constructive and help the ministries and different state establishments, not a single privately-owned home within the metropolis has been reconstructed by the state as of March 2023. The incompetence of state establishments wasvery clearly demonstrated on this case and may affect town’s capability to undertake extra formidable investments, the place collaboration with the nationwide authorities is unavoidable.
It appears, then, {that a} landslide election victory doesn’t imply full energy. As mayor Tomašević has famous on a number of events, inheriting duty for a large system is like ‘taking up a airplane in mid-flight’. In 2021 town was combating greater than 110 million euros (860 million kuna) of unpaid claims and a couple of billion euros (8.2 billion kuna) of debt. Monetary consolidation was one of many early successes of town authorities, despite the fact that this essentially constrained public funding.
However monetary chaos was not the one drawback going through the brand new metropolis authorities. Its predecessor had steadily and systematically reworked town’s bureaucratic equipment right into a system of spoils, that means that the brand new administration needed to reinstate skilled requirements and codes of conduct among the many metropolis’s civil servants. The Croatian native authority system closely constrains mayors’ selection of key officers inside their very own administrations, together with the heads of metropolis departments. As a substitute of mayors having the ability to appoint heads of workplaces at their discretion, customary observe in lots of international locations, every publish should be crammed by way of a protracted and sophisticated technique of public competitors. Though this rule may make sense for skilled civil servants, the heads of metropolis departments needs to be keen to implement the insurance policies of the governing political celebration. The ‘depoliticisation’ of the chief was not an issue for the previous administration, which habitually faked public competitions and appointed people with out even minimal formal prerequisities. Nonetheless, the brand new administration determined that it couldn’t afford to disobey the procedures, which meant that efficient change on the stage of senior civil servants took round a yr and a half.
On the identical time, the facility of the central metropolis authorities in appointing the heads of public establishments is extreme. Town of Zagreb is accountable for tons of of public establishments, together with kindergartens, colleges, pupil dorms, hospitals, retirement properties, museums, theatres and different sorts of public establishment. Every of those establishments is ruled by a managing board whose members additionally should be appointed instantly by town. Thisbloated system implies that an a change of metropolis authorities brings hundreds of recent appointments.
Along with town’s administrative our bodies and public establishments, the brand new authorities additionally needed to take cost of Zagreb Holding, the general public firm that manages the majority of town’s infrastructure by way of its twelve branches, 5 subsiduaries and round 7000 staff. As famous by Paul Stubbs, Zagreb Holding might quickly turn into the area of rising pressure between a Inexperienced-Left political agenda and the neoliberal logic of company governance.
Nationwide views
It’s nonetheless too early to speak concerning the Inexperienced Left’s prospects within the subsequent native elections in Zagreb, that are attributable to happen in Might 2025. Earlier than that, Croatia will maintain parliamentary, EU and presidential elections in 2024. Public opinion surveys over the previous yr present that, on the nationwide stage, Možemo has stabilised its place because the third hottest political celebration with some 10% of the vote, after the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and the Social Democratic Celebration (SDP). Možemo and ZJN have additionally began the long-awaited technique of merging right into a single organisation, along with one other smaller Inexperienced-Left Coalition member – the New Left. Broadly supported by members of all three organisations, the merger ought to present for a extra environment friendly construction with better intra-organizational accountability and higher communication, in addition to allow the enlargement of membership.
On the nationwide stage, the present technique of the Inexperienced-Left Coalition, SDP and different oppositional actors largely focuses on the unfavorable affect of HDZ hegemony. Whereas no selections have been made, there’s a risk that Možemo will attempt to contest HDZ by way of a coalition with SDP. However coming into a coalition with SDP might additionally worsen the place of Možemo electorally. With the polls displaying constant help for HDZ between 25% to 30%, difficult the the centre-right celebration will in any case be a demanding activity.
Though anti-HDZ rhetoric may entice some voters, Možemo might want to proceed positioning itself as a key actor on healthcare, training and housing. In any case, optimistic campaigning on socioeconomic points that many citizens really feel are unnoticed of the political debateisone of the formulation of its success.
Over the past twenty-one months, the Inexperienced-Left administration has achieved so much and has initiated some long-term processes that may hopefully proceed sooner or later. Whether or not and the way residents will understand this stays to be seen. Within the quick time period, national-level presence and framing technique might be vital. In the long run, sustaining and strengthening electoral reputation comes from profitable groundwork in political organising. This, in flip, calls for a democratic and environment friendly organisational construction. The efforts of organizing are more and more demanding, particularly for the activists working in metropolis district councils and native committees, which regularly function mediators between the communities and varied components of town authorities. To maintain the organisers motivated, the Inexperienced-Left Coalition should ensure that the organisers’ work is satisfactorily supported.
Furthermore, it should be certain that previous and new members, concerned at completely different ranges of presidency from the neighbourhood stage up, proceed to really feel that their participation within the organisation’s democratic life is purposeful and significant. This requires steady rethinking and growth of organizational construction, in order to steadiness the strain between extremely dynamic parliamentary and government politics on the one hand, and intra-organizational democratic processes on the opposite. It additionally presumes a proactive function of the Inexperienced-Left Coalition in sustaining and growing its connections with social actions and different organizations on the bottom within the years to come back.
The creator is a member of Zagreb je naš and Možemo however holds no public or celebration capabilities inside both platform.
Supply hyperlink
