| Sandra Benčić | |
| Office: | Co-coordinator of the We Can! – political platform |
| Alongside: | Tomislav Tomašević |
| Term Start: | 18 March 2023 |
| Predecessor: | Position established |
| Office1: | Member of Parliament |
| Term Start1: | 22 July 2020 |
| Constituency1: | Electoral district I |
| Birth Date: | 28 January 1978 |
| Birth Place: | Zabok, SR Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia |
| Alma Mater: | University of Zagreb |
Sandra Benčić (born 28 January 1978) is a Croatian politician and civil rights and gender equality activist who is serving as a Member of Parliament since 2020. She is a member of the green-left political platform We Can! since its foundation and has been serving as one of its two coordinators since 2023, together with Tomislav Tomašević.[1] [2] [3]
She graduated from the Zagreb Faculty of Law in 2014.[4]
She is a member of the Centre for Peace Studies (CMS), where she worked until 2018, mostly on the topics of inequality and migration. She also has experience dealing with regional development and EU funds, as a consultant and a co-founder of one of the first consulting companies for EU funds in Croatia – "Razbor", where she worked until 2010.
Benčić is one of the founders of the human rights "Solidarna" foundation. She was a member of the Commission for Handling Complaints in the Ministry of Interior and the Council for the Development of Civil Society.[5] In 2017, Benčić signed the Declaration on the Common Language of the Croats, Serbs, Bosniaks and Montenegrins.[6]
She was elected to Sabor as one of the leading candidates of the Green–Left Coalition in the 2020 Croatian parliamentary election. A representative of the I Electoral district, she is serving as Chairwoman of Parliament's Environment and Nature Conservation Committee.[7]
Ahead of the 2024 Croatian parliamentary election, on September 16, 2023, she was chosen unanimously by the members of party council of the political party Možemo! (We can!) as a candidate for the position of the Croatian Prime Minister.[8] In her first public address, Benčić placed emphasis on social and economic equality of all Croatian citizens, the safety and certainty of the work of public institutions as well as equality of all citizens under the law. Furthermore, she placed emphasis on green transition, stating that Croatia needs to be "..one of the most successful countries in green transition which does not create losers of transitions, but instead creates a more just society...".
In February of 2024, after the controversial appointment of the judge Ivan Turudić to the position of State Attorney of Croatia by Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, Sandra Benčić, together with other parliamentarians belonging to left wing We can! party, protested in front of Croatian Sabor the whole day and night before the official voting in the parliament where Turudić was voted in by a majority held by Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ).[9] Following the vote, Benčić announced organization of large protest against the appointment "on next Saturday" alongside 11 political parties from the left wing and center of political spectrum.[10] The protest managed to gather more than 5,000 people in the heart of Zagreb Upper Town.[11] During the protest, Sandra Benčić spoke about the Croatian emigration problem and called out corruption scandals by the governing party HDZ, and expressed her wishes that "Croatia becomes a country from which people do not leave so that they can live, but instead a country where people come to lead good lives." [12]
In 2024 Croatian parliamentary election, Sandra Benčić was the first candidate for the We can! political party in the first electoral district.[13] After the surprise announcement that the current President of Croatia, Zoran Milanović will be a Prime Minister candidate for the Rivers of Justice coalition, Benčić announced that the course of plans for the election campaign for We Can! will remain unchanged and that they will still seek an arrangement with Social Democratic Party of Croatia (SDP) for a coalition in the electoral districts where the right-wing political parties are typically stronger. She also criticized the move and expressed that, if she were in Milanović’s place, she would have abdicated from the position of President before joining the campaign.[14] However, the two parties were unable to reach an agreement for a "dotted coalition" and have decided to have separate candidacy lists in the electoral districts that are more right leaning. Despite that, both Sandra Benčić and Arsen Bauk from SDP have expressed hope that this strategy would lead to more electoral seats as well as wish for future cooperation to remove the HDZ from the government.[15] During Benčić's visit to earthquake stricken Petrinja, her speech was interrupted by a local heckler who accused her of incompetence because "she cannot lead a trade and she studied for 18 years". Benčić dismissed these charges as a typical attack from the supporters of Croatian Democratic Union and Andrej Plenković, who use these arguments instead, because of "a lack of any political sustenance".[16]
Sandra Benčić won 20,352 votes out of total 45,831 votes for the political party We can!, which secured it 3 seats in the first electoral district, and thus was elected for the second time for a member of Parliament.[17] In post-election speech, she spoke up of importance of forming a minority government so that the necessary anti-corruption reforms can be made, as well as to send the ruling party HDZ into the opposition.[18]
She is married to Miroslav Petrović. The couple has two sons.[19]
She appreciates Ivica Račan as Croatian prime minister and Sanna Marin as a prime minister from European country.
Benčić revealed that she regularly attends Let 3, TBF and Hladno pivo concerts.