Centre-right wins in Croatian parliamentary elections
Centre-right wins in Croatian parliamentary elections

On Sunday 5 July, ALDE reports on its newsletter, Croatians headed to polls in the country’s snap parliamentary elections, with five ALDE member parties running: Croatian’s People Party (HNS), Istrian Democratic Assembly (IDS), Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS), Civic-Liberal Alliance (GLAS) and Pametno (P).

The governing centre-right party Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) ran together with ALDE member HSLS, reaching a total of 66 seats out of 151 seats. One of these seats will belong to HSLS. While this is the biggest win for HDZ since 1990s, the party still needs a coalition partner to reach majority.

The biggest opposition force, the Restart Coalition led by the Social Democrats (SDP) got a total of 41 seats. Supporting this coalition, three of these seats will go to ALDE member IDS and one to GLAS. The new populist right-wing party led by Miroslav Škoro came third, totalling up to 16 seats.

ALDE members Pametno and HNS will also hold one seat each. This means that liberals will be represented in the new parliament by all ALDE member parties.

The voter turnout of 46.90% is the lowest turnout ever in the Croatian parliamentary history. Possible reason to this include the COVID-19 outbreak as well as the timing of the elections – for the first time, the country held elections at the beginning of summer.

Hans van Baalen responds to EU Next Generation Package
Hans van Baalen responds to EU Next Generation Package

by ALDE Party

On 27 May, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presented the plan “Next Generation EU” – the Commission’s recovery package to tackle the heavy negative impact produced by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The package aims at boosting European economies towards a more digital and greener society and includes a unique €750 billion on loans and grants, on top of a €1.135 trillion budget for the next seven years.

Commenting on the new recovery instrument, ALDE President Hans van Baalen said:

“I welcome the Next Generation EU Package by the European Commission as a serious, constructive basis for negotiation.

European democracy is based on the co-operation between the EU Institutions and the Member States which means that the European Council has to take a unified position on the Package on June 18 and 19 at best or during the German EU Presidency from July 1.

The European Recovery Plan (Marshall-plan) was not built in a few weeks either. The Next Generation EU should unite us and not divide us. I emphasize that investments in the European economy, whether grants or loans, must always contribute to structural and sustainable reform. The European taxpayers, the European citizens demand value for their money.

We are all in this together so this should not be a North – South, East – West divide. We all benefit from the European Common Market and therefore we should all protect it. United we stand, divided we fall.”