ZAGREB, March 23, 2019 – Mistrust in Croatian institutions and politics, insecure employment and passivity of young people are some of the problems that scientists, professors and politically active youth identified at a roundtable for youth on Friday, entitled “To be young, politically educated and to live in Croatia,” organised by President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović’s Youth Council to motivate dialogue and critical thinking among young people and restore their trust in politics.
President Grabar-Kitarović underscored that she advocates including young people in social and political processes because she sees in young people potential for social change. She believes that it is important to develop critical thinking among young people and that they need to be more involved in global topics and local topics too.
She underscored that the round table was organised due to the lack of interest by young people in politics and said that a survey conducted last year among young people in Croatia showed that they are not interested in politics because they do not trust institutions, political, local and state government.
The results of the survey were presented by an associate at the Institute for Social Research, Vlasta Ilišin, who explained that the survey showed that there isn’t any great difference between generations and that the stance of young people is similar to that of their parents.
Young people are more inclined to political abstinence, are not prepared to take on political responsibility and politically tend to be centre-oriented, slightly to the right. They are very closely tied to their families, very mistrusting of people who have different political views, while showing a greater trust in international institutions, Ilišin said and added that this could be described as “underdeveloped democratic culture” and that everyone was to blame, parents, political stakeholders, the media and the education system.
President Grabar-Kitarović concluded that the biggest problem with regard to young people staying in Croatia is that they do not have a secure and permanent job. “Young people aren’t interested in ideological issues but questions of livelihood,” she underscored and added that it was because society is focused on ideology that young people are losing their trust in politics and politicians.
“They don’t have a secure and permanent job, on average work longer hours than the law prescribes and are on average paid less than the average wage. That is tragic data as far as motivating them to stay in Croatia,” she said.
She added that the biggest fear young people have is of unemployment, which is related to “deeply embedded social anomalies of clientelism, nepotism and corruption,” which is the second most prevalent reason why young people are emigrating.
More political news can be found in the dedicated section.
