NEWS & VIEWS

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At long last the new “Zagreb County Rural Tourism” website is up and running and looking good. Its well a visit with lots of info about everything from wine roads (HIC) and local events, to horse riding, fishing and places to stay along the way.

It can be found here;                                            http://www.tzzz.hr/en/

Now we just have to bulk out the listings for our area around Vrbovec,  so any suggestions would be appreciated and hopefully more village accommodation properties can be added soon. Enjoy!

 

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The new govt of Mr Milanovic is now settled into place and doing all the things that new governments usually do;

1) Raise taxes and

2) Bring in some pointless new laws.

Well guess what this lot are no exception! Vat has gone up to 25% and don’t get me started on the new real estate laws among other things, nothing like kicking someone when they are down!!!!!  In my usual fashion I have taken key board in hand and fired off some pretty stiff and to the point emails which have been sent to all members of the new government I could find contact details for and guess what…….. absolutely nothing, nada, nista, not even the courtesy of a single reply.

Well they don’t know who they are dealing with here, ignore me will you? You do so at your peril you have been warned. Oh and the bald guy in the middle photos is not me, it is the new minister for small business and entrepreneurship……ha ha ha ha ha ha. Sure if you have €10,000,000 euros and are creating 100,00 jobs he will talk to you, otherwise forget it!

Right I am off to prune some trees and vent my pent up frustration out on something mindless,  other than a politician.

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The national elections are now in full swing here in Croatia and each party claims to have the ultimate solution and be so much better than the others. The two main candidates are shown here; the current PM Mrs Kosor and here main rival Mr Milanovic. Talking to people here it seems that they will go out and vote but don’t have much confidence that any particular party or leader can deal with Croatias problems. Who ever wins, both of these two parties seem to be committed to Croatias EU membership so hopefully there will be no surprises in that department.

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A big thank you to everyone who came to meet us at the exhibition last weekend which included many new faces and some well-known ones. It was a very tiring few days having to explore the Birmingham city centre nightlife and then get up early for the rugby on TV, but somehow we managed to get through and even found time to arrive on the stand and do some work. Hopefully many of the new people we met will come over and visit and we can add yet more people to the growing number of us ex-pats living in the area.

Colin was a great help and managed to keep me smiling when the body started to let me down, aching feet and back are the norm at these sort of events when you are stood up for 9 or 10 hours a day. Cheers mate!

The response to the Eco-Hamlet development was very good indeed and we estimate that around half of the people we met over the 3 days were looking to permanently relocate abroad, much higher than the exhibition organisers predicted. We were also the only ones there offering solar power and solar heating, very surprising.

Just under 5000 people attended the show and it seems that the unusually nice weather kept away many people who would other wise have been “just-looking”.  It certainly seemed to us that those people we were meeting were well-informed and serious about making the move abroad.

Not sure I want to be heading back to the UK just yet! Prices have gone through the roof even since I was there back in February. How did I ever manage to live there at 3.50 a pint! 3 quid for a sandwich, 10 pounds a pizza! The list goes on. I’m glad to be home.

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Only a couple of days left now until I head off back to the UK for the “A place in the sun” exhibition in Birmingham and for once the weather is looking very promising! A heat wave is being forecast with temperatures in the mid 20s!  Its probably just a sick joke and its really going to pour down during my visit, a little reminder of what I am missing. LOL.  I’m looking forward to finally meeting those of you that are coming along to the show, it will be nice to put a face to a name after so long just emailing. With England playing Scotland early on Saturday morning and Spurs playing Arsenal late on Sunday afternoon I’m wondering if I could have picked a worse weekend. Oh well we shall just have to sell everything by Friday evening and take the rest of the weekend off! (Don’t you just wish life was that easy?) Colin has agreed to help out over the weekend, but as he’s a Gunners fan I really don’t know what we will have to talk about………. I will probably look as tired as this guy at the end of the weekend, wish me luck. C’mon England and C’mon you Spurs!

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Once again we are all suffering from the turmoil in the financial markets, bought about by weak leadership and a few people in positions of power imposing their views on the world.  It is no wonder that so many people are now considering “throwing in the towel” because they have just had enough. From recent emails and comments it seems that the situation in the UK has become unbearable for many people and the drive to relocate to somewhere cheaper and safer has become more urgent. OK you cannot get away from “everything” by moving to Croatia, but the rule of common sense still prevails here and a safe and private life can be achieved. If you are thinking about getting out of the UK, make sure you are doing so for the right reasons, feel free to call or email us if you want to ask anything about life in Croatia first.

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OK this blog is about Croatiabut we just had to comment on this weeks shocking scenes of riots happening in Tottenham (and now other parts of the UK) a place very close to our hearts. We simply cannot imagine the police in Croatia standing back in the face of such blatant provocation and violence. If the same was to happen here you would likely see a MUCH firmer response, just as it should be! Allowing gangs of youths, or in many cases children, to roam the streets after dark, vandalising and terrorising neighbourhoods and looting would simply NOT be allowed. Here you would probably see see snatch squads arresting rioters, water cannon and tear gas being used and a much firmer hand being dealt out by the police on the front line. And quite right too! You have to ask yourself where are the parents in all of this? How can they not know where their children are at night? We cannot believe that British society has deteriorated so far and so quickly. It’s sad and shameful. We hope our families and yours are safe.

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Support for EU membership keeps growing

Croatian Times

The support for Croatia’s European Union membership is up again this month from 57 to 60 per cent, the latest Ipsos Puls survey shows.

If the referendum on membership were to take place today, 67 per cent of Croats would cast their ballots. Some 15 per cent think they are “very likely” to come out and vote.

Out of those that would come out for the referendum, 60 per cent would circle “yes” for membership, 33 per cent would be against it, while six per cent are not sure what they would think at the time of casting their ballot.

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At last we have a date announced for Croatia to join the EU,

 JULY Ist 2013.

Its been a long time in coming, but thanks to the perseverance of the present  Govt under PM Kosor, it looks to be a done deal now and Croatia will join in two years time.

We now all hold our breath for the final resolution at the end of June, but with these sort of comments and statements coming from all parties involved, it looks like its really going to happen at long last. What this will mean for property prices in Croatia and real Estate interest in general we shall have wait and see. Once this gets into the mainstream press and worldwide interest starts to be generated, those who have been sitting on the sidelines may now just get back into the market place. Lets hope so!

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This months hot topic of discussion is about Croatia and its chance to join the EU.  In cafe and bars, on the news and in the papers it seems to be the subject on everyones lips. Hopes are high for a firm date to be announced by the EU at the end of June, as the Hungarian presidency comes to an end and all of the recent comments coming out of Brussels appear to be firmly in favour of setting a date for membership, perhaps even as early Oct 2012. (A more realistic date we think will be mid 2013).  For many of us this has been a long time in coming, somehow its always been 2 years away, but maybe now our patience will finally pay off, lets hope so! I can already hear the party starting………More in the next few weeks.

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Croatian Prime Minister Kosor inherited her current position when former PM Sanander unexpectedly stepped down and at the time almost no one gave her a chance of lasting out the year let alone being up to the task, Oh have they been proved wrong!

Reminiscent of good old Maggie, she has taken on the difficult issues and dealt with them swiftly and effectively, something her predecessor and other members of the cabinet said was impossible. With elections due at the end of this year, whether she has done enough to stay in her job is anyones guess but I would vote for her if I could. Keep it up Mrs PM you’re doing a fine job in my opinion.

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I have no way of knowing if the 25 year sentence handed down to the Croatian general Gotovina was justified or not, but the Croatian people certainly thought it was excessive and took to the streets in Zagreb and other cities to say so.

Seen by many as a hero during the war they believe in an “eye for an eye”; he was just paying back to the Bos-Serb army a little of what they had being dishing out to Croats.

Right or wrong the bolotics behind the whole matter is obvious to everyone, if he serves even half his sentence I will be surprised and he is likely to be welcomed home to Croatia with open arms.

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The Serb general Mladic was extradited and sent for trial by the ICT this week after 16 years in hiding where no one could find him. Yeah right!

Turns out hes been living in a nice little house in a nice little village in his home country. Sound familiar?  Osamavić Bin Ladenović etc.

Then just at the same time that Serbia wants (sorry needs) to join the EU he is found and arrested and offered up for trial.

If you have seen the Richard Geer film ”The Hunting Party” you will know what i mean…..now that was justice in action. And with a face like that he has to get longer than the good looking Croatian general right?

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