Marija Lugarić, MP

We went to the Sabor (Croatian Parliament) on Monday and met Marija Lugarić, the MP for part of Zagreb. She is 29 and is in her third term. She was first elected when she was 21! She is a member of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), which is the leading minority party in the Sabor.

You can read more about the Sabor here (info in English).

She was great - she hosted all of us as her personal guests, because she said it was easier for us to get through security like that. The Sabor is in recess this week, so she was in a sweater, jeans, and sneakers (I had dressed up!). She spoke to us casually and frankly, and took us on a tour of the building, including the floor of the Sabor. She explained the procedures and functions of the Sabor.

After the tour, Marija took us into a committee room where we all talked about politics (Croatian and American) for over an hour. She told us about her early days in office and what it was like being a token female and a token youth. She said she was never really discriminated against, only because her party's constitution calls for women and young people to be represented in certain percentages. As a women under 30, she killed two birds with one stone. Even still, she said she called her mom in tears, saying that she couldn't do her job!

She believes that governments should be representative of the electorate and had major problems with the fact that Americans can vote at age 18 but can't run for office until older. Her degree is in education and she never planned on being a professional politician. She ended up running after joining the party in college. In Croatia, you don't need money or family or anything to run for office - people vote for the party and the party chooses officials. In all, she is really empowered and pretty inspiring!