Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandic interviewed ahead of the election.
“After such a success in Zagreb, it is only proper for me to help Croatia. Life in Zagreb is two and a half times better than in the rest of Croatia, and my departure from Zagreb would be a gain and not a loss for citizens”, said the mayor of Zagreb Milan Bandić in an interview for HRT, reports Jutarnji List on September 14, 2015.
Bandić invited all those who are against political patronage to join him. “I will not participate in the election process just to participate, but to win. I am confident that I will win and that I will take over Croatia”, he said. He did not give an answer to the question whether, if he wins, he would stay as a member of parliament. He answered that he is only interested in the executive branch of government.
He announced that his campaign will be the least expensive one. He will allegedly spend around 500,000 kuna, and all donations will be transparently collected. His goal is to implement three reforms which he says no one has implemented in the last 25 years. First reform would be the reform of the public administration system, so that it would be based on expertise and knowledge, and not on political considerations and patronage. The other two reforms are the reform of the parliamentary system and the reform of local government – the abolition of the county system.
The viewers also learned that Bandić has a loan in Swiss francs with the monthly instalment of 7,600 kuna. Bandić believes that the government’s proposal for the franc loans is bad because it is not in the social democratic tradition. In his opinion, the protection should be extended primarily to those who were buying their first properties, since they cannot be equated with those who were using the loans to buy yachts.
He says that the court proceedings against him have given him new strength. In prison, he exercised and read books. He repeated that his lawyers will prove his innocence and added that the money for his bail was collected by friends. Asked whether he owns four apartments, he answered that the interviewer could take them if it is ever proven that he indeed owns them.
