Freedom House (Autor): „Freedom in the World 2024
Freedom House
Jahresbericht zu politischen Rechten und bürgerlichen Freiheiten im Jahr 2023
The president, who is head of state, is elected by popular vote for a maximum of two five-year terms. Former Social Democratic Party (SDP) prime minister Zoran Milanović defeated incumbent Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović in the second round of the country’s presidential election in January 2020, winning 52.7 percent of the vote. Polling was peaceful, with voter turnout at 55 percent, and domestic and international stakeholders accepted the result.

The prime minister is head of government and is appointed by the president with parliamentary approval. Andrej Plenković, who chairs the conservative Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), remained prime minister after the party won the July 2020 legislative elections.

The SDP-led opposition coalition holds a significant bloc of parliamentary seats and is generally able to operate free from restrictions or intimidation. However, the HDZ has dominated politics and draws support from the Roman Catholic Church, veterans, and a growing number of conservative nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). The SDP-led bloc has won the most seats in only two parliamentary elections since 1991, although the country has at times been headed by non-HDZ executives. SDP-backed candidates served as president from 2010 to 2015 and again since 2020.

While voters and candidates are generally able to freely express their political choices, many public servants obtained their positions through patronage networks and risk becoming beholden to a party or special interest group as a result. Patronage networks are particularly influential in Zagreb, which was under the almost-continuous stewardship of HDZ-affiliated mayor Milan Bandić—considered one of the country’s most powerful politicians—between 2000 and his death in 2021. Opposition leaders continue to accuse the ruling HDZ of governing the country through shadow patrimonial networks.

Local leadership of the influential Roman Catholic Church associates with conservative and far-right civil society groups, which have become more influential in politics in recent years. Veterans’ groups are also significant, especially in regard to the still-contentious discourse surrounding the 1991–95 Independence War and the position of ethnic Serbs in Croatian society.

Eight parliamentary seats are set aside for ethnic minorities, including three for ethnic Serbs. However, the political interests of ethnic minorities and marginalized groups, notably Roma and Serbs, are underrepresented. Another three seats are reserved for Croatian citizens in the diaspora, including ethnic Croats in neighboring Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).

Women are represented across political parties, and women have held Croatia’s presidency and prime minister’s office. However, the number of women in the parliament has decreased since 2016, after the Constitutional Court struck down a law requiring 40 percent of a party’s candidates be women. In the 2020 parliamentary election, 35 women won seats.

Ethnic Serbs in public office face harassment, with Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) leader Milorad Pupovac notably receiving verbal attacks in recent years. SDSS election posters have been defaced during both European Parliament and Croatian elections.

Societal discrimination discourages LGBT+ people from participating in politics, and elements of the political establishment have espoused discriminatory attitudes in their activism.

While some progress has been made, official corruption—including nepotism, bribery, fraud, and patronage—remains a serious problem, and the European Commission has singled out corruption as a major issue facing the country. Specialized anticorruption courts and the Bureau for Combating Corruption and Organized Crime (USKOK) operate, but local NGOs have observed that corruption has worsened since Croatia’s 2013 accession into the EU.

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) reported in February 2023 that during the previous year it had opened 23 separate corruption investigations in Croatia concerning the misappropriation of a combined €313.6 million ($341.3 million). In May and June, multiple media investigations implicated Croatian authorities in issuing documents used to facilitate a transnational illegal adoption scheme. In December, the minister of economy and his advisor were caught attempting to sell state firms for personal profit, eventually prompting their dismissal from the government.

The 2013 Law on the Right of Access to Information created a proportionality and public-interest test designed to balance reasons for disclosing information and reasons for restricting it. It also established an independent information commissioner to monitor compliance. Government bodies do not always release requested information in a timely manner.

In August 2022, authorities arrested five people over their suspected involvement in a natural-gas reselling scheme at the energy firm INA, in which the government holds a large minority stake. In 2023, investigative media continued to accuse the government, which appointed key members of INA’s board, of serious oversight failures that permitted the scandal. Other allegations of serious oversight or transparency failures continued in 2023. Journalists continued to report on Russian government involvement in the energy and commodities sectors, without appropriate oversight from Croatian institutions. In September, Croatian journalists reported that Foreign Minister Goran Grlić-Radman had failed to disclose more than €2.1 million ($2.3 million) in profits from his stake in a company that had received work from the Croatian government. In June, the Paris-based international Financial Action Task Force (FATF) added Croatia to its grey list of countries under increased monitoring for money laundering and other related financial crimes, making the country the only EU member state on the list.

Score Change: The score declined from 3 to 2 due to a multiyear accumulation of media investigations and other evidence that implicated government officials in transparency or oversight failures.

Media in Croatia is highly polarized but generally free from overt political interference or manipulation. However, journalists face threats, harassment, and occasional attacks—sometimes at the hands of police—which has created an atmosphere of self-censorship. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and local journalist associations have warned of growing political pressure and attacks on the Croatian press under the HDZ government. Prime Minister Plenković and President Milanović have engaged in acrimonious exchanges with local and regional media. The state broadcaster, Croatian Radio Television (HRT), has been criticized for coverage that favors the government.

In July 2023, the Croatian government proposed a draft law that would allow editors to withhold articles without explanation and allow the government to pressure journalists to reveal their sources. The law was condemned by the Croatian Journalists’ Association (HND), the country’s primary journalists’ association, and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ). In July, the HND also accused the government of turning a blind eye to the growing number of strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) in the country, used in particular by politically well-connected individuals to shield themselves from critical coverage.

The Croatian constitution guarantees freedom of religion, which is generally upheld in practice. However, the small Serb Orthodox community remains vulnerable to harassment, and members have reported vandalism of their churches.

In 2023, Jewish communities and other groups continued to express concern about Holocaust denial and displays by right-wing nationalists of symbols and slogans associated with the fascist Ustaša regime that ruled Croatia during the Second World War. Far-right groups, newspapers, and academics have advanced revisionist accounts of the Ustaša period in recent years.

While judicial independence is generally respected, there are concerns about the influence of extreme right-wing groups on the judiciary. Judges have faced corruption allegations in recent years; three judges were arrested in 2021 over bribery accusations lodged by football club administrator Zdravko Mamić, who himself was convicted of corruption in absentia in 2018, for example. In July 2023, the European Commission, in its Rule of Law Report, noted opportunities for better transparency, a low level of public trust in the judiciary, and “excessive length of investigation, prosecution, and adjudication” of corruption cases, which undermined the efficacy of the anticorruption system.

In 2014, following a 2013 referendum that banned same-sex marriage, the parliament passed a law allowing same-sex civil unions. The law affords same-sex couples equal rights in inheritance, social benefits, and taxation. In 2022, a higher court affirmed the right to adoption for same-sex couples.

Domestic violence remains a concern. Convictions for rape and domestic violence can bring lengthy prison terms, although Amnesty International has noted that the vast majority of cases receive sentences of one year or less. Police sometimes fail to adhere to recommended procedures for handling domestic violence reports.

In 2018, lawmakers ratified the Istanbul Convention, a treaty on preventing and combating gender-based and domestic violence. Amnesty International has criticized the Croatian government for failing to harmonize its legislative and policy framework with the treaty’s terms.

Abortion is legal, but is restricted to cases of rape, incest, or serious health problems after 10 weeks into a pregnancy. Croatian doctors face pressure from hospital leaders, religious figures, and others to refrain from performing the procedure. A 2023 article from Balkan Insight describing limited access to abortion in Croatia stated that 59 percent of gynecologists in the country, for various reasons, refuse to perform abortions under any circumstance. It added that laws requiring that they make referrals to doctors who can perform the procedure are not always adhered to.

Worker protection laws are robust, and the Office of the Labor Inspectorate actively investigates work sites. However, labor violations remain a problem within the hospitality sector. Workers in the informal sector have less access to legal protections.

Human trafficking remains a problem, sentences for those convicted of it can be light, and witness statements are not always given appropriate consideration in court cases.