Tomislav Tomašević

Tomislav Tomašević (; born 13 January 1982) is a Croatian politician, activist, environmentalist and political scientist who has served as the 53rd mayor of Zagreb since 2021. He is one of the leaders of the local Zagreb is OURS! political party and the national We Can! political party. Since the 2017 Zagreb local elections, he has been a delegate in the Zagreb Assembly. He was also elected to the Croatian Parliament in the 2020 election.

He ran for mayor of Zagreb in the 2021 local elections and defeated right-wing candidate Miroslav Škoro in the second round, by a margin of 64% to 34%. In the 2021 mayoral election in Zagreb, Tomašević received a record number of votes in both rounds.

Life

Early life and education

Tomašević was born in 1982 in Zagreb, SR Croatia, Yugoslavia to mother Ivanka and father Smiljan. He and his brother Tihomir grew up in Zapruđe and later in Zaprešić as the young family moved before his returning to Zagreb.

Tomašević's uncle, Ivo Tomašević, is a Catholic priest and a prominent member of the Episcopal Conference of Bosnia and Herzegovina. His paternal grandparents were Bosnian Croats from Vidovice near Orašje.

Tomašević graduated from the Faculty of Political Science at the University of Zagreb in 2006, and completed a postgraduate of environment, society and development from the University of Cambridge in 2013. He received several awards and scholarships, including the Marshal Memorial Fellowship, Chevening Fellowship and Cambridge Overseas Trust Fellowship.

Personal life

In 2016 he married his wife Iva Mertić in a Catholic ceremony. Tomašević worked professionally in various non-governmental organisations.

Political career

Early activities

At the age of 16, as a young environmental protection activist Tomašević joined non-governmental organization Green Action. He was soon the first vice-president and later the president of the Croatian Youth Network (), a European Youth Forum full member organization. He was later a president of the Green Action from 2007, with Bernard Ivčić, longtime deputy, succeeded him as the president in June 2012.

Run for mayor of Zagreb (2017–2021)

In the 2017 local elections, Tomašević ran for mayor of Zagreb, at the head of a coalition led by the Zagreb is OURS! political party, and won 3.94% of the vote at the mayoral election. The coalition won four seats in the Zagreb Assembly. Tomašević was among the elected councilors from the coalition, and was a vocal critic of Mayor Milan Bandić in the Assembly.

Elections in 2021

In February 2021, Tomašević announced his candidacy for mayor of Zagreb in the 2021 local elections. Tomašević submitted 20,236 signatures to the State Electoral Commission (DIP) on 29 April. On the next day, the DIP 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. On the 16 May elections, Tomašević won 147,631 votes (45.15%) making him the first candidate for new mayor in the second round. However, as no candidate received a majority of the votes, he faced Miroslav Škoro of the Homeland Movement in the second round on 30 May. In this election, Tomašević's father, Smiljan, was a candidate at the Homeland Movement list for the Zagreb Assembly.

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. 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 thousand votes was larger by nearly 30,000 than that which Milan Bandić received in the second round of the 2013 election.

Parliamentarian (2020–2021)

In the 2020 parliamentary election, as the head of the Green–Left Coalition, he was elected member of the Croatian Parliament in its 10th term. His parliamentary mandate begin on 22 July 2020. By the end of July, 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.

In the 2021 Zagreb local elections Tomašević was elected as the Mayor of Zagreb. Consequently, he resigned from Parliament before assuming office as the mayor. On 18 June 2021, he put to dormancy his mandate in Parliament. Since then his replacement has been Urša Raukar-Gamulin.

Mayor of Zagreb (2021–present)

Tomašević officially assumed the office of Mayor on 4 June 2021. The office of Mayor of Zagreb was handed over to him by acting mayor Jelena Pavičić Vukičević who took the office following the death of Mayor Milan Bandić. Tomašević came to the handover by tram and was late due to an emergency case on a tram station.

Media and opposition pressure

Within the first two months of appointment Tomislav Tomašević faced allegations by media and mostly right wing opposition of compromising his pre-election promises, corruption and investigations due to appointment of medical business owner Tomislav Lauc as the head of the Srebrnjak hospital who was a sympathiser and small donor *(less than 2000 USD) of his party, as well as partial renewing of the contract of the city of Zagreb (due to lack of alternatives) with the notorious C.I.O.S Group owned by Petar Pripuz despite promises not to.

Support of LGBTQ and other minorities

On 3 July 2021, Tomašević attended the 20th annual Zagreb Pride, alongside other Croatian politicians such as former SDP president Peđa Grbin and former deputy prime minister Boris 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."

Public transportation

Under Tomašević, the city bought 40 new Končar trams worth €80 million, which are produced locally, and 65 new busses worth €21 million. The first electric bus was put into service in April 2025. Works started on Sarajevska street, extending the tram network by 2.25km for the first time in 20 years. Under Tomašević, all public transportation became free for Zagreb residents under 18 and over 65 years old in order to combat poverty.

Sport

Works have started on a €38 million football stadium in Kranjčevićeva street, which is meant to serve as a backup stadium for when the Maksimir Stadium will enter reconstruction, and on the €34 million indoor pool complex in Špansko district. In July 2024 works started to renovate the sports complex Dom sportova.

Kindergartens and schools

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. 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.

Waste management

Tomašević campained 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. 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. 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. The project for a new waste management facility has been proposed.

Electoral history

See also

* List of mayors of Zagreb
* List of members of the Sabor, 2020–2024
* List of members of the Sabor, 2024–

References

Sources

*

External links

*
* at 10th Croatian Parliament (archived version from Archive.org)
* at mozemo.hr

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tomasevic, Tomislav
1982 births
Living people
Alumni of the University of Cambridge
Croatian environmentalists
Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Zagreb alumni
Politicians from Zagreb
Representatives in the modern Croatian Parliament
21st-century Croatian politicians
Mayors of Zagreb
Croatian LGBTQ rights activists
Možemo! / We Can! politicians