ZAGREB, June 7, 2020 – A coalition of six left-wing and green parties are launching a petition on Tuesday to ask President Zoran Milanovic to call an emergency meeting after the formation of the new parliament to adopt a new reconstruction bill after a strong earthquake struck Zagreb on March 22.
The initiative is being launched by the coalition of the parties We Can!, the New Left, the Workers’ Front, Sustainable Development of Croatia (ORaH), Zagreb Is Ours! and For the City.
The petition will be open for signature at several locations in the city and online, Tomislav Tomasevic, who will head the coalition’s slate in the July 5 parliamentary election, told a press conference outside the government and parliament buildings in St Mark’s Square in Zagreb on Sunday.
Tomasevic recalled that it was about two and a half months since the earthquake had struck the capital and its surroundings and that many problems remained unsolved. “Two months after the earthquake the Croatian parliament was dissolved without passing a bill on the reconstruction of Zagreb which the present government had been announcing for weeks,” he said.
Given the forthcoming elections and the fact that parliament would take a summer break from July 15 to September 15, Tomasevic said that the coalition parties had decided to launch a petition to President Zoran Milanovic because under the Constitution the President can call an emergency session of parliament. In that case, the new parliament would start work immediately after its inaugural meeting, and lawmakers would not go on holiday but would work on a new bill on the reconstruction of Zagreb and its surroundings.
Tomasevic said they were angry because only 16 families whose homes were severely damaged in the earthquake had been granted state-funded accommodation. “Many families cannot find rented accommodation because owners are reluctant to rent their apartments for a longer-term and because they don’t want to pay tax to the state,” he said, accusing the government of tolerating the black market for an apartment rental for decades.
Tomasevic said they were also angry because the government had still not reported the damage to the European Solidarity Fund so that money could be drawn for Zagreb and its residents.
In conclusion, he said he believed that because of all this the citizens would punish both Mayor Milan Bandic and the government of Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic at the ballot and would put their confidence in this coalition to fight for better laws.
