The candidate of a left-wing environmental coalition, Tomislav Tomasevic, was elected mayor of Zagreb on Sunday, May 30, beating his right-wing rival in the second round of the ballot, according to almost complete official results.
Tomasevic won over 65% of the vote by beating folk singer Miroslav Skoro.
He will succeed Milan Bandic, mayor of Zagreb for more than twenty years, accused of corruption and who died in February of a heart attack.
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Tomasevic is seen as the symbol of a new generation of Croatian politicians unrelated to either of the two dominant political parties. Since Croatia's independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, power has fluctuated between the conservative HDZ party, in power, and the Social Democrats, now in opposition. Tomasevic, 39, campaigned pledging to eradicate cronyism and the
“octopus of corruption”
in the capital. He pledged to make the capital
"greener, fairer, more efficient and more transparent"
.
The coalition led by his Mozemo (We Can) party won 23 seats in the 47-seat municipal assembly in national local elections two weeks ago. Tomasevic first ran for mayor in 2017, but only won 4% of the vote by then. He became a member of Parliament when his Mozemo party made its debut in parliament last year. This does not prevent some from pointing the finger at his lack of experience. One of its main challenges will be the reconstruction of the old town, which was badly damaged by an earthquake in March 2020.