An analysis of the 10th Croatian Parliament carried out by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation shows deficits in the representation of various demographic groups, with women, people under 30, people without higher education and workers being the least represented.

n the 2020 parliamentary election, no MP under the age of 30 was elected to parliament. The largest age group in the 10th Parliament were people aged 45-59 (77 MPs), shows the study entitled “Unequal Democracies – Croatia: Who is (not) represented in Parliament?”.

Taking into account the share of under-30s in the total population of the country, based on the 2021 census data, the ideal representation for the said age group in parliament would be 25 MPs, but in the last four years they have not been represented. On the other hand, the 45-59 age group actually had 30 MPs (77) more than the ideal representation (47).

Citizens in the 30-44 age group are much better represented. 35 MPs were elected to the last parliament, 9 less than the ideal number of 44. Almost as many MPs (36) represented people aged 60-70, whose representation came closest to the ideal representation (33).

Young men have a better chance of getting into parliament if they are on the ballot paper of a far-right party

“Men over 30 have a slightly better chance of being represented because middle-aged people are relatively well represented, but the chances for women under 30 are zero, even if they have a university degree. Nevertheless, it would be good if these women were on the ballot paper of a green or centre-left party, then they might even have a chance.

A 28-year-old man, for example, has a better chance of getting into parliament if he is on the ballot paper of a far-right party, if we look at the current lists for the new parliament,” said Ivan Puh, one of the authors of the study.

In terms of gender structure, the number of female MPs in the last parliament of 151 seats has risen to 50 by March 2024, an increase of a third. However, a representation of 76 MPs would be ideal, considering that women make up 51.8% of the population.

In the last election, the number of women elected to parliament was even lower (34), but their number increased by the end of the legislature after their male colleagues who held a second office, namely that of minister or district councillor, gave up their seats.

The problems of underrepresented groups are not understood well enough

“When some experiences, particularly those of young people, women and the working class, are not represented, their problems are less understood. They are not taken into account when policies and decisions are made and so we often have laws that have to be changed again and again. This happens because there was no one in parliament to do a reality check,” said Puh.

Apart from young people and women, members of the working class are also underrepresented in the Sabor. In the last parliament, there were only ten MPs with a university degree and no MPs representing unskilled labour.

On the other hand, 79 MPs could be categorised as professional politicians who had been in parliament for at least 10 years or held a political office at local, regional or national level.

Nikola Baketa from the Zagreb Institute for Social Research wondered why the youth and women’s organisations of the HDZ and SDP had not managed to place their candidates on the parties’ lists and noted that work should be done on intra-party democracy rather than representation quotas.

Baketa also criticised the fact that the current party programmes do not guarantee equal territorial representation. “For example, of the 210 candidates running in constituency 5 (which includes the entire districts of Vukovar-Srijem, Brod-Posavina and Pozega-Slavonia as well as the eastern part of the Sisak-Moslavina district), 29 have their permanent residence in Zagreb and only 18 in Vukovar.”