Who is the new HDZ hope that smoothly overthrew the SDP in Sisak? ‘I decided to take away my city’

Domagoj Orlic is one of the young HDZ hopes that has been completely unknown to the general public so far. However, it is not a coincidence that this 44-year-old has achieved success in Sisak, although a few months ago he rarely believed that he could beat SDP’s Kristina Ikic Banicek in the first round with 58 percent of the vote. The SDP was mistakenly considered that their fort on Banovina was safe after Ikic-Banicek ruled the city for three terms.

Orlic is a man of Ivan Celjak, a mayor who has become a star in the last election, and won the first round at this. It is part of the party rejuvenation strategy at Banovina after the old Guard led by Ivo Zinic left four years ago because of the affair.
The Orlic strategy is carefully planned. He is not the president of the HDZ City Organization in Sisak, but currently the Secretary of State at the Ministry of Physical Planning, Construction and State Property is still. He came only in 2023, when the Ministry took over HDZ veteran Branko Bacic.

Orlic was also in charge of the renewal of Banovina after the earthquake. Although he was rarely in the media, he visited the field.

– He worked great and was with people. He may not know him the general public, but people know him here-one HDZ from Sisak tells us, who announced last week to us that it is possible for Orlic to win the first round because people are saturated with the SDP mayor and her rule.

Orlic is a graduate engineer of traffic and taught in the Technical School in Sisak. In the biography, he cites a career related to urbanism and spatial planning. After school, in 2008 he entered the city government and remained there until 2018 as a senior infrastructure advisor at the Department of Physical Planning. Since 2019, he has been the head of the County of Physical Planning, and has been withdrawn to the Ministry. The handball player also trained the local handball club until his departure to the Ministry.
He led the campaign by retaining his place in the Ministry. He attacked Mayor Ikic-Banicek mostly because of non-transparency, suspicious procurement, employment, but at an ideological level.

The question is how much he ran away because he was vehemently attacked by the former mayor because she had sold the land to the construction of a large slaughterhouse of Pilic in Sisak. It is a project that fiercely distributed Sisakans this year, and Orlic laughed on the wave of dissatisfied. He said that there were a lot of secret arrangements and pollution, and that he was offering sustainable development. The Ukrainian investor has already bought thousands of square meters of land, has the first permits, so the question is how and if Orlic can change something now. In any case, he also won an absolute majority in the City Council, but the former mayor will be his biggest opponent.

In a 24 -hour interview, Orlic confirms: will not support the slaughterhouse and investment of the Premium Chicken Company owned by the Ukrainian bookmaker Favbet.

– They have no permits or they can have them. After the city sold them, the former administration issued them a decision that the project was aligned with the spatial plan, which is not true. He is not aligned with him or the urban plan of the economic zone. The former administration tried to adjust the plan to the investor, but they failed, and so it would remain. Sisak wants investors who will work in accordance with spatial plans, not adjusting them to them with arrangements that the public knows about. The environmental study was also flawed and could also not be made for inconsistencies with plans. This administration will not go into such changes – Orlic replies to the question of what will now be with the investment worth a few hundred million euros.

Why did he even decide to run and leave a better paid place in the Ministry?

– I decided to repay the city, I felt I could help. The city was crying out for changes and citizens confirmed this at the polls. We want to say not to divisions and to cooperate. The city did not cooperate with the county or the national level and therefore many opportunities were missed for the development of the city – says Orlic.

As soon as he takes power this week, he will first make a financial audit of the city’s business, his companies and institutions.
– We want to have a pure start, and we expect to discover everything- he concludes.