Croatian Democratic Union

Fadil Novalic, the caretaker Prime Minister of Bosnia's Federation entity, was detained Thursday overnight by the state law enforcement agency SIPA together with the head of the Civil Protection and the owner of a private company as part of an investigation into the purchase of allegedly overpriced Chinese respirators. 

The Croatian parliament was dissolved on Monday on the proposal last week of six parliamentary clubs of the ruling majority, led by the centre-right Croatian Democratic Union HDZ, whose ratings have risen in the coronavirus epidemic.

Amid a row in Bosnia over whether aid was being sent to the country on a selective basis, Hungary on Thursday sent a plane load of 200,000 masks and 10,000 protective suits.

As Croatian MPs discussed a proposed law amendment, that would allow authorities easier access to citizens' information amid the ongoing coronavirus epidemic, opposition lawmakers warned that it could limit citizens' rights to freedom of movement and their privacy.

Two former politicians, Luka Bebic and Andrija Hebrang, members of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, told Zagreb County Court on Monday that they only learned from the media that the defendant, Branimir Glavas, had been involved in war crimes against Serbian civilians in the eastern city of Osijek in 1991.

"There is no external pressure to encourage change; the [European] Commission, for example, has abolished the anti-corruption reports it once had."

Responsibility for the fight, Ivkovic Novokmet said, had fallen on institutions now firmly in the hands of the conservative Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, in power since January 2016.

Grabar-Kitarovic had the full backing of the conservative Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), which has led the governing coalition since 2016 and boasts a powerful party machine across the country.

Even so, Milanovic beat her soundly in the second round in early January, scooping 52.66 per cent of votes compared with 47.34 per cent for Grabar-Kitarovic.

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, who is also a leader of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, sacked Health Minister Milan Kujundzic on Tuesday after a series of media reports that he did not admit the true value of his real estate holdings.

"The minister was focused on topics that had nothing to do with what he was doing," Plenkovic told reporters.

A Croatian political expert said Sunday's presidential election victory by the centre-left candidate, Zoran Milanovic, was to some extent a protest vote against his rival's "hard-core nationalist campaign".

Zoran Milanovic won the second round of the presidential election in Croatia on Sunday, according to preliminary results, after nearly 100 per cent of votes were counted.

The Social Democratic candidate and former prime minister took 52.70 per cent of the votes, comfortably beating his centre-right rival, incumbent president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, who won 47.30 per cent.