September the 27th, 2026 – A protest has been announced in Zagreb for the 10th of October as traders, business groups and private landlords express their fury at yet more new rules.
Craftsmen, entrepreneurs and private landlords have announced a protest in Zagreb on the 10th of October over the new rules on so-called anchor prices, tax burdens and tourism reform. Index reports that they hope to shed light on just how much stress and last-minute expectations keep being put on them by a government that seems to delight in making them feel like criminals.
As of the 1st of October, traders and service providers will have to, alongside the current price, also display the one that was valid on the 10th of September. For businesses, this means additional administration, costs and changes to price lists. Fines for non-compliance with the rules on anchor prices range from €3,000 to €30,000.
Martina Tupek, owner of a hairdressing salon with over a decade of experience, says she is faced with new costs. “The price lists are in preparation and of course they aren’t cheap to sort out. Additional costs have been imposed on us. I believe that for someone who comes to me as a client, the price is not really the decisive factor. Really, whether it was a euro or two, nobody looks at the price list to see whether something was cheaper a few months ago. Whoever gets a haircut will continue to get a haircut,” Tupek told RTL.
Danijel Habijanić, who has run a craft for selling school supplies for more than 30 years now, has to change the prices on thousands of items. “In the physical shop, we have between 4,000 and 5,000 items, and on the web over 3,000. We’ll get to work and do all of that. Especially the web part, that also costs financially and takes a lot of time. Today, when online shopping is competition from the whole world for us, we have to fight with such senseless things, as if we are to blame for prices rising,” Habijanić stated.
They emphasise that the protest is not directed against taxes, supervision or an ordered system, but against constant changes to the rules, new burdens and decisions that are made without quality analyses and discussions with the sectors they concern.
all we want is predictability
UGP president Bruno Samardžić said that entrepreneurs accept risk, but not unpredictability.
“A business owner has to accept market risks, competition and responsibility for their own decisions. That is an integral part of entrepreneurship. But what we can’t accept is that the rules are constantly changed and that people who run a business never know what awaits them in a few months. You cannot plan investments, employment or development if the framework is constantly being moved. Entrepreneurship does not seek security. It seeks predictability. We aren’t asking to be exempted from obligations, nor are we asking for a privileged position. We’re asking that decisions be made with analysis, dialogue and enough time for adaptation. The state should look at people who work and create as partners, and not as the simplest source of new revenues. We are not asking for privileges. We are asking to be able to work,” he said.
“Every craftsman who wants to grow and develop has been punished by the state if they cross the tax threshold by one cent. I do not want to live in a state that punishes growth, but in one that says: Grow, create, open jobs. That is why I am telling the state to get off our backs,” said Kristina Bakula from the association.
private accommodation owners are also joining in
In addition to business owners and craftsmen, private landlords are also coming out to the protest. Their dissatisfaction was prompted by a significant increase in the lump-sum tax, the announced tourism reform and the new categorisation of apartments.
“This time, we have all gathered together – landlords, entrepreneurs and craftsmen. We want to show the state that it cannot treat us the way Franjo Tahi treated the serfs: violently and capriciously,” said Vedran Tomić, president of the association Let’s Save Small Family Landlords. He emphasised that small landlords have since 2024 become a target because of problems of housing and the real-estate market with which they are not connected.
“You cann’t solve the problems of housing, real-estate prices and the lack of long-term rental by punishing people who have for years legally invested, worked and paid taxes. Legal certainty is the foundation of every normal business and life, and it is precisely that which is today systematically being undermined. We are not rentiers, we are not the problem and we aren’t anyone’s scapegoats. We’re citizens of this state who with our work fill the budget. Thousands of landlords from all over Croatia no longer want to remain silent and endure the constant changing of the rules of the game. The state is not the owner of our lives and towards the people who finance it it cannot behave as towards serfs. Enough is enough. It is time for citizens to fight for legal certainty as the foundation of a fair relationship of the state towards its citizens,” he said.
higher costs and less satisfaction
President of the Alliance of Associations of Small Traders (SUMT) Mladen Kramar told N1: “Expect higher costs and more dissatisfaction.” Kramar considers the obligation to display anchor prices a huge administrative problem because of the shortage of labour.
“There’s simply nobody to carry it out and the rules that have been imposed are unclear. In the end, that does not solve the problem of inflation either, which the Government invokes. It is looking for someone to point a finger at and say that they raised the price. And one tiler will not raise the price if he has no additional costs because it is in his interest to be more price-acceptable. But it turns out that we are all raising prices and that we are all super-rich, and when we file our taxes we practically fall into the category of social cases.” He mentions the example of his colleague, the owner of a bookshop and stationery shop.
“She has a billion pencils on offer just as I have a billion chewing gums in the shop. For all of that the label has to be changed, and she does not even have workers to cover two shifts so she works one herself. Just that cost of writing all of that out she will have to calculate somewhere into the price and raise that price, not because she is arrogant, but because she is forced to do so. We are constantly going round in circles. Everyone sees that this is not an anti-inflation measure, but a measure that encourages inflation,” Kramar says.
the clear demand to the government
At the protest on the 10th of October, the organisers will present a series of demands. They will seek a revision and abolition of the Decision on the anchoring of prices. They will also demand that detailed analyses be carried out before the introduction of new burdens, that changes be announced in a timely manner, and that obligations and sanctions be proportionate. Finally, they will demand that representatives of entrepreneurs, craftsmen and landlords be included in the adoption of regulations that directly concern them.
