We can! (Croatia)

We Can! – Political Platform (Croatian: Možemo! - politička platforma) is an eco-socialist[1] and social progressive political party in Croatia formed by local green and leftist movements and initiatives in order act on national level for EU and parliamentary elections.

We Can! – Political Platform

Možemo! – politička platforma
LeaderCollective leadership
Founded10 February 2019 (2019-02-10)
HeadquartersZagreb
Ideology
Political positionLeft-wing
National affiliationGreen–Left Coalition
(2017–present)
Colours     green      red
Sabor
4 / 151
European Parliament
0 / 12
Zagreb Assembly
1 / 51
Website
mozemo.hr

Core values

The party designates itself as a wide and progressive platform that aims to include members and voters that resonate with ideas across the entire spectrum of values on the left, including radical left politics, green and sustainable politics, to democratic socialism.[2][3] Core values include: general decentralised development and economy, social and gender equality, striving for energy and food independence, reducing the ecological footprint, improving education and science, maintaining independent media and supporting innovation. The developmental models proposed models seek to reduce precarious forms of work, strengthen economic democracy, and to foster trade unions, as well as the legal rights of workers in general.[4][3]

History

The party originated first as the initiative committee consisting of activists and left-wing politicians, 26 of them, mostly coming from the Zagreb is OURS! party, but also including other independent movements across the country within the same political and ideological spectrum.[5][6]

Founding

The party was officially founded on 10 February 2019,[6] prior to the elections for the European Parliament held that year, with primary areas of interest being education, better health policies, social and gender equality, support for migrants,[7] renewable sources of energy, and sustainable agriculture.

The founding assembly defined that the party does not have an official president, but instead has two coordinators – from among the membership Sandra Benčić and Teodor Celakoski were elected[6] [3] – who along with another five members of the party make up its Party Board.[3] Other prominent members of the Initiative committee at the time, most of whom remain active, included Danijela Dolenec, Damir Bakić, Iskra Mandarić, Đuro Capor, Urša Raukar, Vilim Matula, Dario Juričan, Mima Simić, Ivo Špigel, Tomislav Tomašević and others.[8]

2019 EU elections

The parties We can!, New Left (Nova ljevica in Croatian), and Sustainable Development of Croatia (ORaH) formed a coalition on 28 March 2019 for the 2019 European Parliament election,[9] where they expected to win one seat.[10] The single seat would be occupied by all three parties on the rotational principle, and the coalition list for the elections had an equal number of candidates from all three parties, i.e. four from each party as Croatia was assigned twelve representatives in the European Parliament. The goal of the coalition is to offer policies that would transform Europe into a sustainable, just, and green community, while rejecting the neoliberal policies that generate ever greater inequality among EU citizens and Member States, even more noticeable in the EU’s peripheral countries, such as Croatia and Greece.

We can! also noted that they support the Green New Deal authored by the DiEM25 movement, which represents an ambitious plan to invest over €500 billion annually into the development of post-fossil fuel economies in Europe, mostly into renewables, green industries, and sustainable transport.[10] The funds required for the plan would be acquired by issuing joint bonds by the European Central Bank (ECB). Tomislav Tomašević also stated that according to polls almost 60% of Croatian citizens think that Croatia is not doing enough to fight climate change, while 80% think that the Croatian economy should be pivoted to the realm of green economy.[11] Yanis Varoufakis, former Greek finance minister and one of the leaders of DiEM25, extended his support of We can! to Croatian voters prior to the election, stating that they support the Green New Deal.[10][12]

The We can! coalition received 19,313 votes in elections for the EU Parliament, which is 1.79% of total votes.[13][14]

2020 parliamentary elections
All seven MPs of the Green-Left Coalition

In the July 2020 parliamentary election the platform/party had good ratings from the start of campaign and received media coverage on daily basis.

Former SDP member and later independent parliamentarian Bojan Glavašević joined the platform as the first independent candidate.[15] Front-men of legendary punk-rock band Hladno Pivo, Mile Kekin and his wife Ivana (clinical psychologist) also joined the party list as socialists who were concerned with the lack of social policies in the established centre-left SDP.[16] He also authored the song that was used for the party promotions titled "Happy People".[17] Prominent theater maker, multi-talented performer and always engaged with activist causes Mario Kovač also joined as the leader of the list for Croatian diaspora (again through a satirical performance and media use). To add to this in the last week towards the elections new public figures used video to expressed support like actor and activist Jane Fonda[18] or voting commitments from numerous individuals.[19]

Though with modest financial resources (of exclusively private and small donations)[20] the Možemo! platform confirmed and extended its rise in popularity (while both leading parties were in decline), especially in Zagreb from single to multiple seats[21] where it was biggest surprise of elections.

According to preliminary results, the coalition won around 7% of votes and 7 seats in the parliament.[22] These seats will be taken by Tomislav Tomasevic, Sandra Bencic, Damir Bakic, Vilim Matula, Rada Boric, Katarina Peovic, and Bojan Glavasevic.[23] Coalition partners were very close to winning a seat in Dalmatia, but also had excellent result in the city of Dubrovnik with 9% of total votes.[24] They celebrated their results at the MSU.[25]

Electoral performance

Parliament of Croatia
Year Popular vote
(coalition)		 % of popular vote Overall seats won Seat change Coalition Government
2020 116,480 6.99%
5 / 151
 New Green–Left opposition

European Parliament
Year Popular vote
(coalition)		 % of popular vote Overall seats won Seat change Coalition Affiliation(s)
2019 19,313 1.79%
0 / 12
 New Green-Left GUE–NGL
gollark: Yes, wireless modems can only go some amount of blocks depending on their height and the weather.
gollark: The only real advantage it has is routing, and ender modems obsoleted that (which I'm kind of sad about).
gollark: The differences are *not* very big.
gollark: Rednet is just an abstraction layer for modem.
gollark: Rednet/modems/trendy websocket things like skynet.

See also

References
  1. Nordsieck, Wolfram (2020). "Croatia". Parties and Elections in Europe.
  2. "PREDSTAVLJENA NOVA POLITIČKA PLATFORMA 'MOŽEMO!': 'Ne možemo gledati kako političke elite zemlju vode u propast'". February 3, 2019.
  3. "We Can – New Leftist Political Party Founded in Croatia". www.total-croatia-news.com.
  4. "Početna - Možemo! - politička platforma". www.mozemo.hr.
  5. "Nova stranka Možemo! poručuje: Ljevica u Hrvatskoj se ne mrvi, ona se upravo budi". tportal.hr.
  6. "Možemo!, politička platforma koju čine brojni profesori, umjetnici i aktivisti, upravo je postala stranka". Telegram.hr. February 10, 2019.
  7. "European Parliament Elections – What do parties in Croatia say about integration?". European Web Site on Integration.
  8. "Priopćenje za medije - Možemo! - politička platforma". February 3, 2019.
  9. "POLITIČKA PLATFORMA MOŽEMO!, NOVA LJEVICA I ORAH ZAJEDNO IZLAZE NA EU IZBORE 'Očekujemo jedan mandat' - Jutarnji List". www.jutarnji.hr. March 28, 2019.
  10. "Varoufakis Supports Croatia's We Can! Platform in European Election". www.total-croatia-news.com.
  11. "Politička platforma Možemo! podržava "Zeleni New Deal" za Europu". H-Alter - Udruga za medijsku kulturu.
  12. "Croatian EU Election Hopefuls Tout International Backers". May 15, 2019.
  13. "National results Croatia | 2019 Election results | 2019 European election results | European Parliament". europarl.europa.eu.
  14. Henjak, Andrija (June 1, 2019). "Croatia: Towards Further Fragmentation of the Party System".
  15. "hina.hr". www.hina.hr.
  16. Teleskop (2020-06-09). "Ivana Kekin je SDP opisala kao stranku s krivim imenom i prezimenom: Je li ona nagovorila supruga Milu da se "baci" u politiku?". Teleskop (in Croatian). Retrieved 2020-06-14.
  17. "Mile Kekin - Happy people (Croatian:Sretni ljudi) video for party campaign".
  18. Vijesti.hr. "Jane Fonda podržala Radu Borić i Možemo!: 'Naprijed Rada! Glasajte za listu broj 3!'". Vijesti.hr (in Croatian). Retrieved 2020-06-30.
  19. "Podrška Archives - Možemo! - politička platforma". Možemo! -- politička platforma (in Croatian). Retrieved 2020-07-06.
  20. "HNS je rekorder po donacijama, a Škoru donirale tvrtke koje su uzele potpore". www.index.hr (in Croatian). Retrieved 2020-06-30.
  21. "Što se zbiva u pozadini korone i Škorinih ekscesa? Nagli rast novih opcija na ljevici i centru". Telegram.hr (in Croatian). 2020-06-27. Retrieved 2020-06-30.
  22. "hina.hr". www.hina.hr. Retrieved 2020-07-06.
  23. https://www.index.hr/eng/croatia/article/the-future-of-the-croatian-left-mozemo/2195930.aspx
  24. platforma, Možemo! politička (2020-07-06). "Ulazimo u Sabor sa 7 mandata! - Možemo! - politička platforma". Možemo! -- politička platforma (in Croatian). Retrieved 2020-07-06.
  25. "Tomašević: Ušli smo u Sabor, a nakon 20 godina maknut ćemo Bandića s vlasti". www.vecernji.hr (in Croatian). Retrieved 2020-07-06.
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