The COVID-19 Pandemic: Croatian Government Response Ivan Koprić University of Zagreb, Croatia Abstract Croatia was not well prepared for managing the COVID-19 crisis. The Croatian Government opted for professionally-driven response. Numerous measures were designed and taken gradually, because a comprehensive, tailor-made plan for managing the COVID-19 crisis had not been prepared in advance. That led to cunctatorial epidemiological measures in the period before lockdown and caused some technical problems. Lockdown was declared on 20 th March. Various public, legal and political concerns have been appeared. The most relevant governance challenges were coordination and public information. Governmental response was centralised, without any substantial role of local governments. The COVID-19 crisis has slowed down the economy and caused severe budgetary problems. The relaxing measures were introduced gradually after 27 th April. Finally, the main body managing the crisis, the Civil Protection Headquarters, met the allegations of being politicised. Instead of serious evaluation, the Government announced early general election to be held on 5 th July 2020. Keywords The COVID-19 crisis, Croatia, centralised response, relaxing measures, budgetary problems, politicisation Highlights Plans for dealing with the most serious crisis which have medical, social, psychological and public safety aspects need to be prepared on the firm constitutional and legal basis in order to escape serious legal risks, political and public allegations, and possible subsequent damage to public budgets, institutional and political stability, and decline of democratic culture. Special budgetary funds for emergencies might be one of the solutions for mitigating their immediate consequences. Crisis management as a response to serious societal challenges caused by various wicked problems has become a prominent theme in administrative science. A typology of the most serious societal crisis and a comprehensive comparative frame needs to be built for making research more relevant. Such a typology might be built by combining the most relevant aspects (for example, public safety, public health, ecological, economic, budgetary, demographic, cultural, political, legal, etc.), the magnitude and spatial extent of impacts (local, regional, national, European, etc.), organisation of government in a state (centralised, regionalised, state with strong local autonomy, etc.), political culture (authoritarian, participative, etc.), and others. Comprehensive comparative frame has to include issues such as constitutional and legal framework, institutional design, types and models of response measures, coordination, implementation, accountability mechanisms, responsibility and legal consequences, evaluation, etc. Complex theoretical frame needs to be designed, including wicked problems theory, neo- institutional approaches, etc. Introduction The first test on COVID-19 in Croatia was done quite early, on 30 th January 2020. The first case in Croatia was confirmed on 25 th February 2020, it was a 25-year old employee of a large company who attended a football match in Milan, Italy, then returned to Croatia on 20 th February and was hospitalised, with symptoms, on 23 rd February. (Croatian Institute of Public Health, 2020). On 4 th June 2020, more than three months after the first case, the number of registered COVID-19 cases was 2,247 with 103 dead persons on permanent population of 4,290,612 (2011 census). As many as 2,105 people have recovered and 67,814 people have been tested by the same date. (Government of the Republic of Croatia, 2020a; European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, 2020).