Tomislav Tomasevic, the candidate for Zagreb mayor of the centre-left We Can!/Zagreb is Ours! platform, on Monday presented the Open Air application, launched along with the installation of new air quality monitoring stations enabling Zagreb residents to more easily follow air quality in the capital.

“The internet application provides citizens with systematic and accessible information on the quality of air in Zagreb,” Tomasevic told a news conference. The application, available for download as of Monday at zrak.mozemo.hr, was designed by members of his political group, who worked on it as volunteers.

The authors of the group’s Digital City task force, Sarah Baron-Brljevic, Drazen Lucanin and Tonko Bogovac, said that installing additional air quality monitoring stations cost around 8,000 kuna (under €1,000), presumably per unit. These were installed at 10 locations around Zagreb. The new app will also provide information from pre-existing measuring stations, showing air quality as well as the level of particulate matter in the air.

Tomasevic said that digital technologies, mainly “used by the city authorities over the past 20 years to dodge transparency and stay inefficient,” would be made “a lever for the transformation of city governance.” His campaign also puts emphasis on tackling largest sources of pollution in Zagreb, such as car traffic, heating oil, the “inappropriate use of biomass,” as well as the Jakusevac landfill.

Tomasevic talks campaign financing

He also commented on campaign financing records which were supposed to be submitted by all candidates by May 7. Tomasevic said that his platform had the most donations made by individuals which, he said, serves as proof that he has the backing of citizens.

The report shows that the We Can!/Zagreb is Ours! platform spent 523,780 kuna (€70,000) for local election campaign, plus an additional 300,561 kuna (€40,000) with its coalition partners. They received nearly 234,000 kuna (€31,000) in donations. He ranked second in terms of campaign spending. Social Democrat candidate Josko Klisovic tops the list, and Davor Filipovic of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) is third.

Tomašević said the report showed that his platform had ten times more donors than HDZ and that their average donation was 10 times smaller than the average donation HDZ received from donors, and 25 times smaller than the average donation received by independent mayoral candidate Vesna Skare-Ozbolt, who served as justice minister from 2003 to 2006 in the cabinet of former HDZ prime minister Ivo Sanader.

According to recent polls, Tomasevic is currently in the lead for the May 16 local election by a substantial margin, and is widely tipped to go into the second round with either candidate nominated by Croatia’s two largest parties – Klisovic or Filipovic.

(€1 = 7.53 kuna)