Sandra Benčić | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Co-coordinator of theWe Can! – political platform | |
| Assumed office 18 March 2023 Serving with Tomislav Tomašević | |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Member ofCroatian Parliament | |
| Assumed office 22 July 2020 | |
| Constituency | Electoral district I |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1978-01-28)28 January 1978 (age 47) |
| Political party | We Can! (since 2019) |
| Alma mater | University of Zagreb (LL.B.) |
Sandra Benčić (born 28 January 1978) is a Croatian politician andcivil rights andgender equality activist who is serving as aMember of Parliament since 2020. She is a member of the green-left political platformWe Can! since its foundation and has been serving as one of its two coordinators since 2023, together withTomislav Tomašević.[1][2][3]
She graduated from theZagreb Faculty of Law in 2014.[4]
She is a member of the Centre for Peace Studies (CMS), where she worked until 2018, mostly on the topics ofinequality andmigration. She also has experience dealing withregional development andEUfunds, as aconsultant and a co-founder of one of the firstconsulting companies for EU funds in Croatia – "Razbor", where she worked until 2010.[1]
Benčić is one of the founders of thehuman rights "Solidarna" foundation. She was a member of the Commission for Handling Complaints in theMinistry of Interior and the Council for the Development of Civil Society.[5] In 2017, Benčić signed theDeclaration on the Common Language of theCroats,Serbs,Bosniaks andMontenegrins.[6]
She was elected toSabor as one of the leading candidates of theGreen–Left Coalition in the2020 Croatian parliamentary election. A representative of theI Electoral district, she is serving as Chairwoman of Parliament's Environment and Nature Conservation Committee.[7]
Ahead of the2024 Croatian parliamentary election, on September 16, 2023, she was chosen unanimously by the members of party council of the political partyMožemo! (We can!) as a candidate for the position of theCroatian Prime Minister.[8] In her first public address, Benčić placed emphasis on social and economic equality of all Croatian citizens, the safety and certainty of the work of public institutions as well as equality of all citizens under the law. Furthermore, she placed emphasis ongreen transition, stating thatCroatia needs to be "..one of the most successful countries in green transition which does not create losers of transitions, but instead creates a more just society...".
In February of 2024, after the controversial appointment of the judge Ivan Turudić to the position ofState Attorney of Croatia byPrime MinisterAndrej Plenković,[4][7] Sandra Benčić, together with other parliamentarians belonging to left wingWe can! party, protested in front ofCroatian Sabor the whole day and night before the official voting in the parliament where Turudić was voted in by a majority held byCroatian Democratic Union (HDZ).[9] Following the vote, Benčić announced organization oflarge protest against the appointment "on next Saturday" alongside 11 political parties from the left wing and center of political spectrum.[10] The protest managed to gather more than 5,000 people in the heart ofZagreb Upper Town.[11] During the protest, Sandra Benčić spoke about the Croatian emigration problem and called out corruption scandals by the governing partyHDZ, and expressed her wishes that"Croatia becomes a country from which people do not leave so that they can live, but instead a country where people come to lead good lives."[12]
In2024 Croatian parliamentary election, Sandra Benčić was the first candidate for theWe can! political party in thefirst electoral district.[13] After the surprise announcement that the currentPresident of Croatia,Zoran Milanović will be a Prime Minister candidate for theRivers of Justice coalition, Benčić announced that the course of plans for the election campaign for We Can! will remain unchanged and that they will still seek an arrangement withSocial Democratic Party of Croatia (SDP) for a coalition in the electoral districts where the right-wing political parties are typically stronger. She also criticized the move and expressed that, if she were in Milanović’s place, she would have abdicated from the position of President before joining the campaign.[14] However, the two parties were unable to reach an agreement for a "dotted coalition" and have decided to have separate candidacy lists in the electoral districts that are more right leaning. Despite that, both Sandra Benčić andArsen Bauk fromSDP have expressed hope that this strategy would lead to more electoral seats as well as wish for future cooperation to remove theHDZ from the government.[15] During Benčić's visit toearthquake strickenPetrinja, her speech was interrupted by a local heckler who accused her of incompetence because "she cannot lead a trade and she studied for 18 years". Benčić dismissed these charges as a typical attack from the supporters ofCroatian Democratic Union andAndrej Plenković, who use these arguments instead, because of "a lack of any political sustenance".[16]
Sandra Benčić won 20,352 votes out of total 45,831 votes for the political partyWe can!, which secured it 3 seats in the first electoral district, and thus was elected for the second time for a member ofParliament.[17] In post-election speech, she spoke up of importance of forming aminority government so that the necessary anti-corruption reforms can be made, as well as to send the ruling partyHDZ into the opposition.[18]
She is married to Miroslav Petrović. The couple has two sons.[19]
She endorsedIvica Račan as Croatian prime minister andSanna Marin as a prime minister from Finland to theEuropean Union.[5]
Benčić revealed that she regularly attendsLet 3,TBF andHladno pivo concerts.[5]