The Green-Left Coalition's candidate for the mayor of Zagreb, Tomislav Tomasevic, who won the first round on May 16, said on Tuesday that after the 30 May runoff against the second-placed candidate Miroslav Skoro, which he expects to win, that his coalition would embark on a reorganization of the city administration and ask the heads of its 27 departments to offer their resignation.

“If we want a change, it is our right to ask the city ministers, as well as directors of city-owned companies… to offer their resignation,” Tomasevic said at a news conference.

He noted that he would ask current office-holders to submit reports and evaluate their work, while new department heads would be chosen in public procedures and the number of city departments would be reduced due to reorganisation.

Tomasevic said that he would not make any rash moves and would hold meetings with all department heads and ask them to report on what had been done so far.

“The only criterion will be one’s performance, and I have been familiar with that, having been a city councillor for the past four years,” he said.

Tomasevic also commented on the statement by his rival Miroslav Skoro of the right-wing Homeland Movement, who on election day, 16 May, referred to him and his coalition as the “far left.”

“That kind of tactic does not and will not work in Zagreb, as shown by the election outcome,” Tomasevic said, noting that he did not intend to demonize his political rivals.

He noted that in the first round of the election Skoro had led a smear campaign.

This was proved by the Croatian Regulatory Authority for Network Industries (HAKOM) as it has turned out that Skoro had hired an agency that phoned voters and vilified his rivals, Tomasevic said, noting that he would continue a positive election campaign.

He called on voters to give him the largest possible support in the runoff, adding that every vote would count as it would enhance the legitimacy of the planned changes.

The coalition of the We Can! platform and its partners won 23 of the 47 seats in the Zagreb City Assembly, and Tomasevic said that they would discuss forming the majority, based on programme cooperation, with the Social Democratic Party (SDP) but not before the runoff.

He noted that he had already discussed this with the SDP’s mayoral candidate, Joško Klisovic, and that he did not expect any problems with the formation of a stable majority.

Tomasevic said that he expected to be supported in the runoff by candidates from the centre to the left, which Klisovic already did after the first round of the election, calling on SDP voters to support Tomasevic in the 30 May runoff.

Danijela Dolenec, a candidate for Tomasevic’s deputy, said that the results of elections for local government units, showing that their slate was the strongest in 16 of the 17 of Zagreb’s districts, proved that citizens had recognised that their coalition’s relationship with citizens was based on partnership.