He Had a Farm and Ten Children, Lost Everything
Milan Hlevnjak from Jagnjedovec, after a series of misfortunes, had to shut down his family farm and now fruitlessly searches for any job to feed his large family.
Milan Hlevnjak from Jagnjedovec, after a series of misfortunes, had to shut down his family farm and now fruitlessly searches for any job to feed his large family.
The Hlevnjak family from Koprivnica's Jagnjedovec settlement is living proof that even the establishment of the Ministry of Demography and Immigration two years ago has not brought tangible benefits to large families. Milan and Biljana Hlevnjak, parents of ten children, recently moved from Starigrad, and their daily life has turned into a struggle for basic survival after Milan was forced to close the family farm.
Milan Hlevnjak continued the family tradition of farming for years. He had a pig farm in Reka but had to close it. As he told Podravski list, it turned out he lacked the necessary permits, although he claims he had them. An additional blow came from a buyer to whom he sold pigs but who never paid him.
"How our judiciary works is sufficiently shown by the fact that I will never be able to get my money. To have grounds to claim anything from him, I would have to sue him, and he will be in prison for 12 years, so the question is how I would then collect from him," Milan explained.
The final blow came with the loss of the lease on state land he was cultivating. He was not offered the option to buy it, and he did not succeed in the tenders. "I was left without land, and there was no choice but to give up farming," he said.
To avoid accumulating debts, Milan sold one house to settle all obligations. "I don't owe the state anything, but I haven't received anything from it either. They say families should have as many children as possible, but they don't offer us any opportunity to have the conditions to raise them. I'm not asking for any help, just the chance to work and feed my family," he emphasized.
He has sent job applications to numerous companies but has not received a single call for an interview. He sees a certain irony in the frequent claims about a labor shortage. "It's not quite true that there are jobs but no workers. If that were the case, someone would surely call me to come work," he noted. His wife Biljana is on maternity leave until December 2026, when their youngest daughter turns three, after which she also plans to look for work.
From autumn, the Hlevnjak family will have seven schoolchildren, five of them in primary school, which further heightens the parents' fear for their safety. In Jagnjedovec, there is no pedestrian and bicycle path, and traffic, according to Milan, is heavy and full of trucks.
"We're afraid one of the children might get hurt. Recently, not far from us, a truck had a tire blowout, and if that had happened while one of our children was on a bike, I'm sure there would have been an accident," he recounted. Because of this, mother Biljana will have to drive the children to school in Starigrad. "The city administration is well aware of this problem, but for now, there are no signs that a path will be built in Jagnjedovec anytime soon," concluded Milan Hlevnjak.
The city administration responded that the project documentation for the path's construction is being prepared, and an environmental impact assessment procedure is underway at the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Green Transition. "After obtaining the location permit, we will proceed with resolving property-legal relations and obtaining a building permit, as well as constructing the path. The timelines currently depend on the speed of obtaining opinions from the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Green Transition and the pace of resolving property-legal relations," they stated.
Despite all the misfortunes, Milan is not considering leaving the country. "I love Croatia and have never thought about going abroad to earn a living," he said.
