In November, the Split Municipal Court rejected a lawsuit filed by a war invalid and IT graduate who sought 10.600 euros in damages from the HDZ and the mayor of a municipality in Dalmatian Zagora, claiming that he had been illegally enrolled in the party. The court found that the plaintiff had enrolled himself in the HDZ online in 2019 and then did nothing to remove him from the party's records for four years.
On April 18, 2019, at 14:34 p.m., someone filled out a membership form on the HDZ website and entered the man's full personal information: name, surname, OIB, address in Lećevica, Gmail address, information that he had graduated from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering. In September 2019, the man received a letter from HDZ in the mail with a payment slip for the membership fee. Despite the fact that he claimed during the court proceedings that he did not support the party and that he was apolitical, in this case he did not react, did not ask for an explanation, or request to be removed from membership.
In April 2021, he even responded with vulgar language to an Easter greeting card sent to him by email by the HDZ county organization, but even then he did not ask to be written out.
The situation escalated on May 2, 2021, at a meeting of locals in Radošić when the mayor presented him with a membership card. The witness confirmed that the mayor did not announce this publicly over the loudspeaker, but simply approached him and presented him with the card.
"I feel raped, dirty and devalued"
In August 2022, the man filed a lawsuit detailing his emotional state. He wrote that he felt "raped, dirty, devalued" and that identifying with HDZ puts him in the same category as various controversial figures and scandals in local politics. He listed a series of scandals he linked to the party, from alleged embezzlement in Kaštela to suspicious spending of municipal funds.
He claimed that he has insomnia and nausea, that people avoid him thinking that he is a "member of a criminal organization", that he has difficulty concentrating and that he has neglected his health. In the small community, the postman sees the payment slips delivered by the HDZ to his home address, which causes him shame. He emphasized that "he is an 80 percent disabled war veteran with difficulty moving, unpunished, highly decorated, apolitical and a clear opponent of traitors."
He demanded 6.636 euros from the mayor and 3.982 euros from the HDZ, the publication of a public apology in Slobodna Dalmacija, and the deletion of data from all computer databases.
The court found that all the information entered into the web form, including the Gmail address that he himself confirmed, exactly matched the man's real information. An IT expert determined that the form was sent from an IP address in Karlovac, but the court noted that today it is easy to simulate access from any location.
"It is illogical that the mayor of the municipality or someone from the HDZ would have access to all this personal data," the judge wrote, adding that the entry of the "ETF" qualification corresponds to the fact that the man has a master's degree in computer science.
The court attached decisive importance to the fact that the man had not taken any action for four years. "The minimum activity is to immediately respond that he is the wrong addressee," the court concluded. It dismissed the entire lawsuit and ordered the man to pay 4.250 euros in costs.
Photo: Canva/Foto kreativa portal.hr/Ilustracija
