Does George Soros finance the Croatian parliamentary party Možemo! (We Can!)? No, that's not true: Croatian law prohibits the financing of Croatian political parties by foreign countries, foreign political parties, foreign legal entities, or foreign natural persons. A party spokesperson contacted by Lead Stories blamed right-wing parties for promoting the false claim linking the left-leaning party to widely debunked conspiracy theories involving George Soros.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) published by @kinginvictus33 (archived here) on January 16, 2024, with a caption, translated into English from Croatian by Lead Stories staff, that reads:
16.01.2024.
TOMISLAV TOMAŠEVIĆ
-HOW TO DESTROY RESNIK
-HOW TO DEVASTATE THE GREEN OASIS
-POWERED BY SOROS
MOZEMO/HDZ
-GLOBALIST AGENDA
-FINANCED BY SOROS
-SENF ZAGREB'S BIGGEST MISTAKE
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Fri January 19 12:18:13 2024 UTC)
The video shows a press conference (archived here) held on January 16, 2024, in which Zagreb mayor and Možemo! party co-president Tomislav Tomašević (archived here) - referred to in the TikTok by his nickname "Senf" - announced that the City of Zagreb planned to terminate a particular wastewater treatment contract.
According to Article 46 of the Croatian Law on Financing of Political Activities, Election Campaigns, and Referendums (archived here), a "Ban on financing" prohibits political parties from accepting financial contributions from foreign countries, foreign political parties, foreign legal entities, and foreign natural persons.
In response to a query, Možemo! spokesperson Gordan Bosanac (archived here) wrote to Lead Stories by email on January 19, 2024, as translated from Croatian into English by Lead Stories staff:
This is false information spread by some right-wing parties in the public space to create confusion about We Can! party financing. This claim is irrelevant because foreign foundations/organizations can't finance political parties by the Law on Financing of Political Activities, Election Campaigns, and Referendums. All our donors are public and easily verifiable from official reports. We are proud to be a party with the most transparent small donations from citizens.
The spokesperson sent links to party financial records dating back to 2019 when the party first ran candidates for elections. Lead Stories focused on the last two reports: the semi-annual report for the period from January 1, 2023, to June 30, 2023 (archived here) and the annual report for the year 2022 (archived here), and did not find any trace of financing by George Soros or by the Open Society Foundations.
Also, according to data from the Open Society Foundations (archived here), founded by George Soros and now led by his son Alexander, Možemo! is not listed among the Croatian entities and projects that are financially supported by them.
Before founding Možemo!, party leaders were active in civil society organizations (archived here) which were associated with George Soros. When asked about possible links to the party, Bosanac told Lead Stories:
This question should be directed to the right-wing parties that spread this false news. It is widely known that Mayor Tomašević previously worked in civil society organizations before his professional political engagement, which the right wing often tries to defame. The previous professional arrangements of party members cannot be linked to the party's financing because these are two completely separate categories.
Furthermore, he pointed out that for civil society organizations, receiving donations from foundations is not contrary to any law or regulation of the Republic of Croatia.
