After months of unofficial campaigning, the official campaign for the European elections on 9 June has begun.

The State Electoral Commission (DIP) announced the start of the official campaign by publishing the consolidated list of valid nominations on its website on Wednesday afternoon.

Twenty-five lists will compete for 12 seats in the European Parliament, namely 23 lists of parties and two independent lists, totalling 300 candidates. This is a decrease compared to the 2019 elections, when 33 lists and 396 candidates vied for the voters’ favour.

Candidates can officially present themselves to voters over the next 44 days until Friday 7 June at midnight, when the two-day election silence begins.

In contrast to the last parliamentary election, where there were no fixed penalties for violating the election silence, such actions in the European elections are punishable by fines. Natural persons face fines of up to €398, election candidates from €1327 to €3981 and legal entities, such as political parties, from €13,272 to €66,361.

The fourth European elections in Croatia

In addition to the candidate lists of political parties and coalitions such as HDZ, Most, Mozemo, Domovinski pokret (DP), SDP and others, two independents, incumbent MEP Ladislav Ilcic and influencer Nina Skocak, will compete for a seat in the European Parliament after collecting 5,000 signatures each.

The HDZ is led by Andrej Plenkovic, the Most by Bozo Petrov, the DP by Ivan Penava and the SDP coalition by Biljana Borzan, to name but a few.

Participants in the European elections are not allowed to spend more than €530,891 per candidate on the election campaign.

Apart from their own funds, campaigns can also be financed by donations. Individuals can donate up to €3981 to a political party or independent list, while legal entities can contribute up to €26,544.

The elections in June will be the fourth European elections in Croatia. The first were held on 14 April 2013, before Croatia’s accession to the EU on 1 July of the same year. At that time, 12 MEPs were elected, but their term lasted only one year, as the regular European elections were held the following year, in 2014. The last European elections were held in May 2019.