Croatia can be a better country and this is a watershed moment when the parliamentary election will decide whether Croatia is taking the path of optimism and hope or of further plunder, apathy and despair, the leaders of the parties which organised the "Enough!" protest said in Zagreb on Saturday.

Protests by the Rivers of Justice coalition and the We Can! party were also held in Osijek, Rijeka, Split and Varazdin, and were triggered by the appointment of Judge Ivan Turudic as the next state attorney general.

“Here we are again because it’s enough. Enough of lies, thievery, crime and enough of the HDZ,” Social Democratic Party and Rivers of Justice leader Pedja Grbin said at the Zagreb protest.

We are offering rivers of justice because Croatia needs justice and the truth the most. Without them we can’t make our country such as we all need, a better Croatia in which workers live with normal pay and in which pensions can be raised, he added.

“This is our country, a country of all our people and we are here for it and are fighting for it. This is our homeland and we will make it better,” Grbin said, adding there is a big job ahead of them before the 17 April parliamentary election.

“The HDZ want to turn Croatia into a hostage of its theft, corruption, and if this goes on, to jeopardise everything we have,” he said. “It’s up to us to say ‘enough’, that we are fighting against corruption and for a better Croatia, which can’t be better with the HDZ in power.”

The short time until the election separates us from hope and giving a chance to the Croatia as we imagined it, We Can! coordinator Sandra Bencic said.

Croatia has become one big waiting room, for a medical checkup, for a verdict, for a job that we can’t get without party membership, for a normal life. Many refused to wait and left the country. We who stayed have decided not to wait any more, she added.

We can and must imagine a better country of equality for all, a country without fear and apathy, in which faith that as a society we can do better is coming back, Bencic said.

“In Zagreb, we have shown that brave changes can be made when you don’t let yourself be impressed by pressures from various interest clans,” she said. We Can! is the ruling party in the capital.

The different Croatia we imagine requires a different approach to politics and responsibility to the public interest as well as leaders whose ego is smaller than the responsibility to citizens and the public interest and who understand that real change takes time and commitment and an alliance with citizens, Bencic said.

“We lost 30 years. Let’s not also lose the four years ahead of us. Let’s imagine that we are a little braver and all that we can achieve together in four years,” she added. “We want to send messages of hope, not fear.”

This is a watershed moment in history and the election will determine whether we are taking the path of optimism and hope or falling deeper into the mire of unscrupulous plunder and total apathy and despair, said Anka Mrak Taritas of GLAS:

The HDZ governments have always brought thieves, political thugs, occupiers of state institutions and resources, and haters of all that is democratic, she said, calling on those in attendance not to let it go on because, she said, an honest, decent Croatia has not disappeared but is here and ready to move forward.

“For justice, for strong and resilient institutions which serve citizens… Croatia is our country and we won’t let them take it away from us,” she said, adding that the protest is a call to citizens to vote.

In Varazdin, People’s Party – Reformists leader Radimir Cacic said the parties making up the Rivers of Justice coalition were sending citizens a clear message – they are either with them or with the HDZ, as there is no third option.

In Split, mayor and Centre party leader Ivica Puljak said the HDZ had created a country of people who were not free and were afraid of the HDZ’s rule.

In Rijeka, SSIP leader Dalija Oreskovic said the Rivers of Justice coalition would change Croatia and that it had been enough of authorities which were stealing everything and had become arrogant.

It’s time for us to unite and say together “enough” because we can change the corruption, which is in every pore of society, only with a river of justice, she added.

In Osijek, Croatian Peasant Party leader Kreso Beljak said one of the biggest disgraces of the HDZ in the last 30 years was the fact that Slavonia was among the least developed regions in the country.

“That HDZ should be told ‘enough’, but now it’s no longer enough to say ‘enough’. Now rivers of justice are coming, a man is coming whose name I must not say because that gang has banned even mentioning the name of our candidate,” he said, referring to President Zoran Milanovic.