We want to change Zagreb in order to change Croatia, Tomislav Tomasevic, the candidate of the We Can!/Zagreb is Ours platform for Zagreb Mayor, said on Friday while presenting the platform's programme for the May 16 local elections, which he described as historic. 

The green-left platform for Zagreb is available as of today on the We Can! website. About 200 members of the platform and its supporters worked on 18 thematic units of the programme, having interviewed more than 10,000 residents.

“Zagreb will be run in partnership with the citizens, we will strengthen local self-government, topics will be discussed at citizens’ meetings, and important issues will be decided in referendums,” said programme coordinator Danijela Dolenec.

Tomasevic announced a change in the model of running the city, post-earthquake reconstruction and Zagreb’s transformation into a green, sustainable and efficient city.

He said the city administration and companies would be reorganized, the public procurement system would be improved, social partnership strengthened and the city administration digitized.

The city property will be managed rationally and transparently, and digitization will result in better services for citizens.

Tomasevic said the money for those changes would be secured, among other things, by putting to use unoccupied city property, through competitive public procurement and by revising harmful contracts.

“Our calculations show that that way we can save around HRK 300 million and as much in the Zagreb Holding,” he said, adding that his team “unlike the current city government, knows how to use EU funds.”

He said that the number of city departments would be reduced from 27 to 15 and that the heads of those departments and directors of city companies would be chosen in public procedures.

Tomasevic said that an office for reconstruction would be set up to deal with documentation required to apply for the reconstruction of property damaged in the 22 March 2020 earthquake and that mobile teams would be introduced to inspect the situation on the ground and provide advice on the best possible solutions.

Tomasevic also promised a better social policy, better care for the elderly and better health protection.

He said that the Jakusevac landfill would be closed down in the next four years and that waste sorting facilities would be opened and waste disposal charged depending on the quantity of unsorted waste.

A recycling center will be built, and an agreement under which municipal waste from Zagreb County would be transported to the waste recycling center in the City of Zagreb will be revised, he said.