The City of Zagreb's billboards were used during campaigning for May's European Parliament election to covertly promote the political party of Mayor Milan Bandic and were paid for with money from the city budget, the State Electoral Commission (DIP) said in a report on Friday.

The report said that an inspection of campaign financing had found that jumbo posters with information about the City of Zagreb, were paid for from the city budget and were in fact covert electioneering by Bandic’s party.

City authorities put up 175 jumbo posters on billboards during the election campaign which all carried the City of Zagreb logo and promoted various events and achievements by the city.

The DIP said that the number of posters displayed in 2019 was disproportionately higher than in 2018. Last year 20 jumbo posters were displayed while in 2017 that number was 60.

“It was observed that in an election year the City of Zagreb advertised a considerably larger number of posters than it has done normally in previous years (…) which leads to the conclusion that advertising during electioneering cannot be considered as the normal provision of information to the citizens of Zagreb about the city authority’s activities,” the DIP concluded, adding that it was obvious that this was covert electioneering.

Kolakusic impermissibly used funding

The report further notes that Mislav Kolakusic’s slate used funding from the Anti-Corruption Platform NGO, of which he himself is the president.

Kolakusic used stands issued to the NGO to promote his slate during the election, and the DIP decided that this was an impermissible method of financing.

Kolakusic’s election financing report noted that his slate had bought one information stand, yet during the electioneering several were used.

The DIP also ascertained that the Human Shield party did not pay donations exceeding HRK 5,000 into the state budget as prescribed by the law and that contracts that the party concluded were not in accordance with the law.

The Independents for Croatia party and the Work and Solidarity Party of Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandic did not pay funding obtained from unallowable sources into the state budget, the report said.

Almost HRK 17 million spent, no one exceeded the limit

The DIP further noted that none of the participants in the European election exceeded the amount prescribed for electioneering of HRK 4 million. The Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) spent the most – a little more than HRK 3,970,000, while the Social Democratic Party (SDP) spent almost HRK 3,500,000. Bandic’s Work and Solidarity Party spent a little more than HRK 2 million.

The DIP found that 33 participants in the election spent almost HRK 17 million, while total income from all those participating in the election amounted to just over HRK 15,300,000, and HRK 2,100,000 was raised in donations.