Tomislav Tomašević | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Tomašević in 2021 | |
| 53rdMayor of Zagreb | |
| Assumed office 4 June 2021 | |
| Deputy | Danijela Dolenec Luka Korlaet |
| Preceded by | Milan Bandić Jelena Pavičić Vukičević (acting) |
| Member of theCroatian Parliament for6th electoral district | |
| Assumed office 16 May 2024 Serving with
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| Member of theCroatian Parliament for1st electoral district | |
| In office 22 July 2020 – 16 May 2024 Serving with
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| Personal details | |
| Born | (1982-01-13)13 January 1982 (age 43) Zagreb,SR Croatia, Yugoslavia |
| Political party | Zagreb is OURS! (2017–2025) We Can! (2019–present) |
| Other political affiliations | Green–Left Coalition (2017–present) |
| Spouse | |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupation |
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| Website | tomislavtomasevic |
Tomislav Tomašević (pronounced[tǒmislavtomǎːʃevitɕ]; born 13 January 1982) is a Croatian politician, activist, environmentalist and political scientist who has served as the 53rdmayor of Zagreb since 2021. He is one of the leaders of the nationalWe Can! political party, as well as of the localZagreb is OURS! party until 2025, when the two merged.[1] Since the2017 Zagreb local elections, he has been a delegate in theZagreb Assembly. He was also elected to theCroatian Parliament in the2020 election.
He ran for mayor of Zagreb in the2021 local elections and defeated right-wing candidateMiroslav Škoro in the second round, by a margin of 64% to 34%. In the2021 mayoral election in Zagreb, Tomašević received a record number of votes in both rounds.
Tomašević was born in 1982 inZagreb,SR Croatia,Yugoslavia to mother Ivanka and father Smiljan. He and his brother Tihomir grew up inZapruđe and later inZaprešić as the young family moved before his return to Zagreb.[2]
Tomašević's uncle, Ivo Tomašević, is a Catholic priest and a prominent member of theEpiscopal Conference of Bosnia and Herzegovina.[3] His paternal grandparents wereBosnian Croats from Vidovice nearOrašje.[4]
Tomašević enrolled in theFaculty of Law at theUniversity of Zagreb, but switched to and graduated from theFaculty of Political Science in 2010,[5] and completed a postgraduate in environment, society and development from theUniversity of Cambridge in 2013.[6] He received several awards and scholarships, including theMarshal Memorial Fellowship,Chevening Fellowship andCambridge Overseas Trust Fellowship.[7][8]
In 2008, he met Iva Mertić through mutual friends,[9] whom he married in 2016 in a Catholic ceremony.[10] They share an interest in adventure, hiking and travelling, among others.[9]
In 1998, at the age of 16, as a youngenvironmental protection activist interested in politics, Tomašević joinedGreen Action,[11] anon-profit environmental advocacy organization.[12][13] In 2003, he became the first vice-president and later the president of the Croatian Youth Network (Mreža mladih Hrvatske), aEuropean Youth Forum member organization.[7][14] Parallel to being vice-president, in 2005, he became a member of the Youth Council of the Government of Croatia (Savjet za mlade Vlade Republike Hrvatske).[12] In 2006, he participated in launching the civic initiative Right to a City (Pravo na grad),[15] an organization againstprivatization.[16] In 2007, at the age of 25, he became president of the Croatian Youth Network,[7] and president of Green Action up until 2012 when a longtime deputy Bernard Ivčić[17] succeeded him.[18] In 2010, he co-founded Group 22,[19] agreen-left organization that advocates fordegrowth and researches alternatives tocapitalism.[20] Tomašević worked with theGovernment of Croatia from 2012 to 2015 as member of the Council for Sustainable Development and Environmental Protection.[6]
From 2006 to 2011, Tomašević fought against the construction of Centar Cvjetni (a shopping mall) on Petar Preradović Square as president of Green Action which organized the protest together with Right to a City.[21] The reason was that the shopping mall was out of touch with the surrounding architecture - both in size and design,[22] and the entrance to the underground parking garage would take up a portion of the Varšavska Street pedestrian zone.[23] The climax happened on 17 May 2010 when protestors clashed with a large group of security guards, knocked over the construction site fence[24] and blocked traffic and the construction vehicles.[25] The protestors were met with police; 150 people were arrested, including Tomašević, who led the protest, and his father, despite having different political views.[26][27] Other activists in the protests included Teodor Celakoski andUrša Raukar-Gamulin.[24][27] In the end, the shopping mall finished construction in 2011, and is open to this day.[28] In March 2009, together with other colleagues from the Green Action, Tomašević confronted Zagreb Assembly members with water bottles branded "Mutna", meaning murky. It was meant to symbolize the organization's disapproval of the city government for collaborating with businessmanIvica Todorić to build a hotel on protected land, and in their words, for clientelism and corruption.[7][29] In November 2011, in front of theState Attorney's Office, Tomašević protested alongside Kamensko workers against the closure of the factory, and for the arrest of the management for their "mismanagement".[30]
Upon returning to Croatia in 2015, he shortly worked at theHeinrich Böll Foundation,[31] and in the same year started working at theInstitute for Political Ecology[32] which employed several other futureZagreb is OURS! members such asDanijela Dolenec andJelena Miloš.[33][34] There, he researched the democratization of rail services, water governance and waste management services, among others.[8] He left in 2020.[33]
Tomislav Tomašević was one of the co-founders of theWe Can! political party in 2019, right before theEuropean Parliament election. It was meant to compete on a national stage and represent to theleft-wing andgreen voter base, vowing to not form a coalition with "compromised" political parties such as theSDP.[35] In the2020 parliamentary election, as the head of theGreen–Left Coalition, he was elected member of the 10thCroatian Parliament. His mandate began on 22 July 2020. By the end of the month, he joined four parliamentary committees: Physical Planning and Construction Committee, Committee on the Constitution, Standing Orders and Political System, Interparliamentary Co-operation Committee, and executive committee of the National Group to the Inter-Parliamentary Union.[36]
In the2021 Zagreb local elections Tomašević was elected asMayor of Zagreb.[37] Consequently, on 4 June, before assuming office as mayor, he froze his mandate in Parliament.[38] For the remainder of the term, his replacement wasUrša Raukar-Gamulin.[36][39]
In 2024, despite being mayor, he ran in the 6th constituency and got 17,674 preferential votes. We Can! got 18.14% of the vote, enough to get him elected together with two of his colleagues.[40] Immediately after the mandate started, he froze his seat, with the substitute beingRada Borić ever since.[41]
In February 2017, Tomašević was one of the initiators and the co-founder of theZagreb is OURS! political party. In April, it was announced he would be running for Mayor of Zagreb together with Danijela Dolenec and Urša Raukar-Gamulin. In the2017 local elections, he ran formayor of Zagreb, at the head of theGreen-Left Coalition led by Zagreb is OURS!, and won 3.94% of the vote at the election.[42] The coalition won four seats in theZagreb Assembly.[43] Tomašević was among the elected councilors from the coalition, and was a vocal critic of mayorMilan Bandić in the Assembly.[44]
In February 2021, Tomašević announced his candidacy for mayor of Zagreb in the2021 local elections.[3] Tomašević submitted 20,236 signatures to the State Electoral Commission on 29 April.[45] On the next day, the Commission confirmed that Tomašević and nine more candidates had submitted signatures from registered voters, and that they had thus qualified to be official candidates for mayor.[46] On the 16 May elections, Tomašević won 147,631 votes (45.15%) making him the first candidate in thesecond round,[47][48] where he would faceMiroslav Škoro of theHomeland Movement.[49] In this election, Tomašević's father Smiljan was a candidate on the Homeland Movement list for the Zagreb Assembly.[50]
On 30 May in the runoff, Tomašević won the mayoral office with 199,630 votes or 63.87% of the vote. He won over Škoro who received 106,300 votes or 34% of the vote.[37][51] In addition, just as was the case in the first round, Tomašević's second round performance once more set a new record for the number of votes received by a mayor candidate in Zagreb. Namely, his number of almost 200,000 votes was larger by nearly 30,000 than that whichMilan Bandić received in the second round of the2013 election.[52][53][54]
Tomašević sought a second term, this time in a coalition with SDP, together with his two deputies.[55] He launched his campaign with a slogan "Unstoppable for Zagreb", and raised €35,980[56] from more than a 1000 individual donations.[57] Before the election on 18 May, Tomašević refused to attend any debates with other candidates because of their, in his words, "dirty campaign", and instead said he will debate his opponent in the runoff, if it happened.[58] Consequently, all of the other candidates criticized him, but instead fought with each other.[59] CandidateMarija Selak Raspudić commented on it saying: "he is avoiding confrontations because he is afraid to face things he cannot defend".[58] During the campaign, the polls had Tomašević leading by more than 27 percentage points.[60][61] He got 47,59% of the vote in the first round, almost avoiding the runoff.[62]
In the runoff he faced the independent Marija Selak Raspudić, who became a new face in Zagreb politics after announcing her bid in April that year.[63] After three debates and another week of campaigning, the election was held on 1 June.[64][65][66] Tomašević won with 130,996 votes or 57.56% of the vote,[67] about 70,000 less than in 2021, but still securing him a second term.[68] Selak Raspudić congratulated him that night.[69]
Tomašević officially assumed office of the Mayor on 4 June 2021.[70][71][72] The office was handed over to him by Acting MayorJelena Pavičić Vukičević, who took the office following the death of Mayor Milan Bandić. Tomašević came to the handover bytram and was late due to an emergency case on atram station.[73]
Within the first two months of appointment, Tomislav Tomašević faced allegations by the media and mostly the right-wing opposition for compromising his pre-election promises, corruption and investigations due to appointment of the medical business owner Tomislav Lauc as the head of theSrebrnjak hospital, a small donor (less than $2000) and a sympathiser of his party, as well as for a partial renewing of a contract with the notorious C.I.O.S Group owned by Petar Pripuz[74] because of a lack of alternatives, despite promising not to.[75]
On 3 July 2021, Tomašević attended the 20th annualZagreb Pride, alongside other Croatian politicians such as the formerSDP presidentPeđa Grbin and former Deputy Prime MinisterBoris Milošević. In doing so, Tomašević became the first mayor of Zagreb to attend the parade, which he had already been doing prior to becoming mayor. He stated that "they, as the new city government, wanted to show that no one can be discriminated on any grounds."[76][77]
Under Tomašević, the city bought 40 new Končar trams worth €80 million, which are produced locally,[78][79] and 65 new busses worth €21 million.[80][81] The first electric bus was put into service in April 2025.[82] Works started on Sarajevska street, extending the tram network by 2.25 km for the first time in 20 years.[83][84] Under Tomašević, all public transportation became free for Zagreb residents under 18 and over 65 years old in order to combat poverty.[85][86]
Works have started on a €38 million football stadium in Kranjčevićeva street, which is meant to serve as a backup stadium for when theMaksimir Stadium will enter reconstruction,[87][88] and on the €34 million indoor pool complex in Špansko district.[89][90] In July 2024 works started to renovate the sports complexDom sportova.[91]
To combat Zagreb's chronic lack of capacity in kindergartens, the administration has invested in building and/or upgrading 10 kindergartens, and an additional 8 are currently in construction.[92][93] The city has done a complete renovation of 8 schools that were damaged by the 2020 earthquake, built and/or upgraded 10, and 8 are currently under construction.[94][95]
Tomašević campaigned on closing the Jakuševec landfill because of its proximity to urban areas and its effect on the environment and nearby people's health, but the landfill still remains open to this day.[96] In December 2023, as a result of a garbage landslide, three workers were hospitalized with one of them having their arm amputated, resulting in a public outcry.[97][98] Following the tragedy, Tomašević blamed the city's poor financial situation upon taking office and the change of EU regulation for co-financing composting and sorting plants for not closing the landfill, but partially accepted the blame himself.[99][100] The project for a new waste management facility has been proposed.[101] However, it includes studies about the viability of a waste incinerator,[102] which sparked an outrage at the Green Action who organized a protest against the city government run by Tomašević, a past member himself.[103]
| Year | Office | Party | Votes for Tomašević | % | Opponent | Party | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Mayor of Zagreb | Zagreb is OURS! | 12,996 | 3.94% | Did not advance to the runoff | |||
| 2020 | Member of the Croatian Parliament for 1st electoral district | We Can! /Zagreb is OURS! | 19,627 | 11.29% | Elected to the Parliament | |||
| 2021 | Mayor of Zagreb | 147,631 | 45.15% | Advanced to the runoff | ||||
| 199,630 | 63.87% | Miroslav Škoro | Homeland Movement | 106,300 | 34.01% | |||
| 2024 | Member of the Croatian Parliament for 6th electoral district | We Can! | 17,674 | 7.30% | Elected to the Parliament | |||
| 2025 | Mayor of Zagreb | 135,545 | 47.59% | Advanced to the runoff | ||||
| 130,996 | 56.57% | Marija Selak Raspudić | Independent | 96,590 | 41.71% | |||
