Croatian Alliance of Tenants Urges Presidential Intervention Amid Fears of Mass Evictions Post-2025
The President of the Republic Zoran Milanović spoke today with members of the Croatian Alliance of Tenants-Citizens of the European Union, who requested a meeting to discuss the possible consequences of applying the Law on the Execution of Judgements of the European Court of Human Rights in the Statileo v. Croatia case group.
The aforementioned law is set to come into force on 1 January 2025, and members of the Croatian Alliance of Tenants claim and caution that, in that case, thousands of citizens will be evicted from the apartments they currently inhabit. These individuals are protected tenants residing in apartments owned by private and legal entities based on former tenancy rights. According to Gordana Vojković, the President of the Croatian Alliance of Tenants, there are currently about 10,000 Croatian citizens in this status.
The Croatian Alliance of Tenants has announced that they will also appeal to the Constitutional Court, seeking protection of constitutionality. “We request that this law be suspended until the Constitutional Court issues its ruling. We will appeal to the Constitutional Court because we are discriminated against on several grounds. The law violates the right to equality before the law and the constitutional right to a home, and it also introduces a disproportion between the right to a home and property rights,” Vojković warned.
The Croatian Alliance of Tenants claims that the state intends to evict protected tenants once the law comes into effect. This is evident from the Government’s programme, which states that, as they quoted, “resolving the status of protected tenants in privately owned apartments, for which the prerequisites have been met, will result in hundreds of housing units appearing on the market in a short period of time.”
The delegation of the Croatian Alliance of Tenants-Citizens of the European Union also included members Jasminka Domaš Nalbantić, Danica Mirković-Vejvoda, and Bruno Janković.
President Milanović was accompanied by Melita Mulić, Adviser to the President of the Republic for Human Rights and Civil Society.
PHOTO: Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia / Dario Andrišek