Croatia flag Croatia: Economic and Political Overview

The political framework of Croatia

Political Outline

Current Political Leaders
President-elect: Zoran MILANOVIC (since 18 February 2020)
Prime Minister: Andrej PLENKOVIC (since 19 October 2016)
Next Election Dates
Presidential: 2024
Assembly: 2024
Main Political Parties
Croatia has a multi-party system. The major political parties include:

- Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ): centre-right, socialist, conservative, advocates political and economic liberalisation, typically dominated the political scene since 1991 and is the current leader of the ruling coalition
- Social Democrats: centre-left. It was founded in 2022 by a parliamentary group that left the Social Democratic Party
- Social Democratic Party (SDP): centre-left, ex-communist party, it is the main opposition party
- Homeland Movement (DP): Croatian nationalism, social conservativism, Euroscepticism
- Croatian People's Party (HNS): centre, liberal, advocates economic reforms. Supports the current government
- The Bridge (MOST): centre, centre right, fiscal conservatism, liberalism
- Croatian Peasant Party (HSS): agrarian, green liberalism
- Workers' Front (RF): left-wing
- Civic Liberal Alliance (GLAS): liberalism, social liberalism
- Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS): centre to centre-right, conservative
- Centre: liberal
- Green–Left Coalition: left-wing ecologist political alliance
- Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS): Serb minority politics, advocates for social democracy
- Istrian Democratic Assembly (IDS-DDI): Istrian Regionalism, liberalism.

Executive Power
The President is the chief of the state, elected by popular vote for a five-year term (renewable once). He can dissolve the Parliament and call for elections and is also the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. The President appoints the Prime Minister (generally the leader of the majority party) and the Cabinet with the consent of Parliament. The President, the Prime Minister and the Cabinet hold the executive powers.
Legislative Power
Legislative power is unicameral. The 151 members of parliament, called the Sabor, are elected by universal suffrage for a four-year term. Eight seats are reserved for ethnic minorities (Serbs, Hungarians, Czech, Slovaks, etc.).
The Constitution has been amended to transfer part of the powers of the President to parliament.
 

Indicator of Freedom of the Press

Definition:

The world rankings, published annually, measures violations of press freedom worldwide. It reflects the degree of freedom enjoyed by journalists, the media and digital citizens of each country and the means used by states to respect and uphold this freedom. Finally, a note and a position are assigned to each country. To compile this index, Reporters Without Borders (RWB) prepared a questionnaire incorporating the main criteria (44 in total) to assess the situation of press freedom in a given country. This questionnaire was sent to partner organisations,150 RWB correspondents, journalists, researchers, jurists and human rights activists. It includes every kind of direct attacks against journalists and digital citizens (murders, imprisonment, assault, threats, etc.) or against the media (censorship, confiscation, searches and harassment etc.).

World Rank:
56/180
Evolution:
59/180
 

Indicator of Political Freedom

Definition:

The Indicator of Political Freedom provides an annual evaluation of the state of freedom in a country as experienced by individuals. The survey measures freedom according to two broad categories: political rights and civil liberties. The ratings process is based on a checklist of 10 political rights questions (on Electoral Process, Political Pluralism and Participation, Functioning of Government) and 15 civil liberties questions (on Freedom of Expression, Belief, Associational and Organizational Rights, Rule of Law, Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights). Scores are awarded to each of these questions on a scale of 0 to 4, where a score of 0 represents the smallest degree and 4 the greatest degree of rights or liberties present. The total score awarded to the political rights and civil liberties checklist determines the political rights and civil liberties rating. Each rating of 1 through 7, with 1 representing the highest and 7 the lowest level of freedom, corresponds to a range of total scores.

Ranking:
Free
Political Freedom:
1/7
Civil Liberties:
49/60

Political freedom in the world (interactive map)
Source: Freedom in the World Report, Freedom House

 

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Latest Update: March 2024

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