Croatia has abandoned a ban on smoking in cafés and restaurants only five months after it was introduced.

Owners of small cafés can now decide themselves whether to allow smoking or not. When the ban was introduced in May, it met with widespread protests. Café owners were afraid they would lose customers. The Croatian press has slammed the lifting of the ban. The newspaper Jutarnji List describes it as “a victory of café owners over common sense”. The smoking ban continues to apply to schools and hospitals.