Croatia has a similar quota system, but failure to comply is punishable only by a fine of 50,000 kunas, roughly 6,600 euros, per candidate list, up to a maximum total of 550,000 kunas, or roughly 72,000 euros – not a lot for the major parties.
For example, in next month’s election, Croatia’s ruling conservatives in the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, has failed to field enough women on its candidate lists for the country’s electoral districts.
Pressed on the issue, parliament speaker Gordan Jandrokovic, who is a member of HDZ, told reporters that the numbers reflected the party’s promotion of women to important posts in international bodies where Croatia is represented.
“If there is a lack of women on the lists now, we will certainly compensate for it in the executive branch,” he said on Tuesday.
CESI, the gender issues watchdog, said that in Croatia the importance a party places on gender equality decreases the more the party grows in power, “which is an indicator of political irresponsibility and the low level of democracy.”
Croatia’s opposition Social Democratic Party, SDP, and its ‘Restart’ coalition has sought to alternate between men and women on its candidate lists.
But critics questioned the SDP’s commitment to equality in March when party leader Davor Bernardic, asked to explain the lack of women among the SDP’s main election coordinators, told reporters that “coordination is not for experimentation”.
CESI singled out the Green-Left ‘Mozemo!’, or ‘We Can!’, coalition in Croatia’s upcoming election for naming six women as its frontrunners for parliament. This sent a clear message “that women can do it, that they are not just there to support a [male] leader,” CESI said.
