Milan Bandić

Croatian leaders' contrasting attitudes towards Tuesday's annual commemoration of the murder of a Croatian family during the independence war drew equally contrasting responses.

Zagreb's new Left-Green mayor, Tomislav Tomasevic attended the commemoration of the murder of the Zec family in 1991 in person.

Tomislav Tomasevic, who has been in office as Zagreb's mayor since the beginning of June, announced fresh changes to the city's management on Tuesday, including abolishing free parking spaces in front of healthcare facilities.

In a new anti-corruption action that started with arrests on Wednesday, Croatian police and anti-corruption investigators have launched an investigation into associates of former Zagreb mayor Milan Bandic, including the director of Croatian Radiotelevision, HTV, Kazimir Bacic.

Young green-left candidate Tomislav Tomasevic, leader of the Mozemo! (We Can!) party, came out on top in the local election run-off on Sunday in the Croatian capital, Zagreb, winning the most votes in the history of mayoral races in the city.

Rather than being a work-horse for the people of Zagreb, Bandic is "a Trojan horse working against the citizens," Tomasevic told some 4,000 protesters at the site.

Avoiding old ideological divides

Tomislav Tomasevic at a protest against a construction project in Zagreb's Varsavska street, February 2010. Photo: Flickr/tomislav medak.

A young left-wing mayoral candidate, Tomislav Tomasevic, leader of the "Mozemo!" [We can!] party, came first by a big margin in Sunday's local elections in the capital, Zagreb.

Whoever wins, experts agree he or she faces a tough task running a city dominated for so long by Bandic, whose energetic, six-term rule over Zagreb was marred by a string of corruption scandals.

Marcelic noted that Croatia has already seen a drop in employment and in the economy. "An additional problem is inconsistent crisis management that certainly creates dissatisfaction [among people]," he said.

A ceremony was held to unveil the Monument to the Homeland in Zagreb on Thursday, the 21st anniversary of the death of Franjo Tudjman, the first Croatian president after the war for independence from Yugoslavia.

The epicenter of the earthquake was seven kilometers north of Zagreb at a depth of ten kilometers.
Index.hr first announced that an earthquake had killed a 15-year-old child. An ambulance took to the field but the child showed no signs of life. However, the latest information is that the child is alive and doctors are fighting for her life.