In the Croatian Parliament, young people are almost non-existent, women are still in the minority, and the working class is invisible.

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A study from the research series “Democracies of Inequality”, conducted by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, was presented in the Croatian Parliament. The study shows that the composition of Parliament in its current term continues to reflect deeply rooted inequalities in age, gender, and social class.

Author Ivan Puh emphasizes that the study shows the typical member of Parliament in the current term is a man aged between 45 and 59, holding a master’s degree in economics, technical sciences, or education, who previously held an executive position at the local level and comes from an “older” political party.

The Croatian Parliament is missing 28 women MPs
The analysis shows that, for gender equality in Parliament, there should be 76 women MPs and 75 men. This means that, in the next parliamentary elections, citizens should elect 28 more women.

Although the electoral law stipulates that the underrepresented gender must make up at least 40% of the list, the imbalance remains evident. The only parliamentary group that has nearly achieved gender balance is the center-left, while the greens and the left are the only groups in which women constitute the majority (80%). In contrast, the far right has only 16% women MPs.

The author also notes that there is a noticeable rise in what he calls the “democracy of diplomas” among women MPs — the share of women with master’s degrees is twelve percentage points higher than that of men, and the share of women with doctoral degrees or equivalents is three percentage points higher. This suggests that women must be more educated than men to be competitive for entry into Parliament.

Underrepresentation of young people
Young MPs, who should ideally hold 25 seats, remain almost absent. In the current term, there is only one MP from this age group. The center-left is the “youngest,” while the greens and the left are the “oldest” — half of their MPs are aged 60 or older. On the other hand, the age group between 45 and 59 is overrepresented, with 35 MPs.

Working class minimally represented
The research confirms that most MPs come from the upper class of the service sector, while the working class remains almost unrepresented. Although most MPs from the working class numerically come from left and center-left parties, no ideological group can be considered representative of the working class, as all four — the left and center-left, the center, the center-right, and the far right — have similar class compositions by occupation.

Research recommendations
The study proposes setting a clear direction within political parties toward internal gender equality, empowering women and youth, establishing women’s and youth bodies within parties, introducing accountability systems for failing to meet representation measures, ensuring gender-balanced dual leadership in parties, setting youth quotas, and amending electoral legislation so that the underrepresented gender holds 40% of mandates.

Parliament, as the highest representative body in a democracy, should ideally reflect the people who elect it. Another important aspect of representation is combating the marginalization of certain social groups — women, the working class, national minorities, and LGBTIQ people. The presence of individuals from marginalized groups in political life can serve as motivation for others to participate. Overall, representation is not merely symbolic, emphasizes author Puh.