ZAGREB, 11 Sept, 2021 - The Preporod union of school employees on Saturday condemned the anti-maskers who invaded the elementary school in Krapinske Toplice yesterday, saying it was not a protest but a threat to the safety and mental health of those who were present, which should be condemned and punished.

"The public condemnation of this violent incident should be prompt and total," the union said in a press release.

It added that the invasion of the 30 anti-maskers was also an organised disturbance of the peace, and that they and the organiser should be promptly and severely punished.

As for reports on police conduct, Preporod said the police should be punished too if their behaviour was indeed unprofessional and their response to the behaviour of the anti-maskers "late and mild."

Preporod said that as of Monday the education authorities should send experts to the school to provide psychological support to the pupils, and that Minister Radovan Fuchs and his associates should visit the school as soon as possible, thereby supporting the pupils, their parents and all of the school staff.

The union reiterated that security in schools was lacking and called on the education authorities to do more to create conditions preventing any kind of violent behaviour in schools.

County head: Security will watch school entrance

Krapina-Zagorje County prefect Željko Kolar told Hina on Friday that as of Monday morning security would watch the entrance to the Krapinske Toplice elementary school as well as the schoolyard, where parents protested against mask-wearing earlier in the day.

Kolar said he would do everything so that pupils could come to the school without fear and that the county would ensure that classes were held without disruption.

He said the protesters broke the law banning organised protesting or gathering near a school during classes. He added that the police did not do a good job because the protest should have been banned or broken up.

Kolar said 308 pupils went to that school and that the parents of only two were protesting against masks, whereas all other parents and their children complied with the COVID rules.

The protest was held because an eight-year-old pupil who refuses to wear a mask, Nikola Gaćina, has been banned from entering the school since Monday. It was organised by his father Kristijan, who says a mask makes it difficult for Nikola to breathe and that the school does not allow him to use common areas without it. Thereby, he said, his son is being denied the right to an education.

Headmaster: Children's health and safety come first

The school's headmaster, Samson Štibohar, said children's health and safety came first and that the protest was the result of one parent's refusal to comply with the measures, protocols and decisions under which headmasters had to create work guidelines for the new school year.

"The problem is that the pupil and his parent refuse that he wear a mask in the hall and the toilet and when entering and leaving school, which takes maybe two minutes," he said, adding that he saw nothing positive in the protest.

"I won't say it's genocide against pupils, but it's something horrible. I saw there a lot of negative energy, meanness, a lot of frustrated people. If they want to achieve something, that's certainly not the way," said Štibohar.

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ZAGREB, 11 Sept, 2021 - Interior Minister Davor Božinović on Saturday criticised statements by some Opposition MPs following arrests in two corruption cases in Međimurje County. 

"I am certain that already the present and the future will prove their cheap political statements wrong. They seem not to want such cases to be prosecuted," Božinović said in an interview with Croatian Radio.

Speaking after the arrests of Međimurje County head Matija Posavec and Social Democrat (SDP) MP Stjepan Kovač, MP Nikola Grmoja of the Bridge party said on Friday that the arrests were politically motivated to "divert attention from the scandal in Kutina" involving the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party, while the SDP's Arsen Bauk said that the timing of the arrests in two unrelated cases showed "a skilful manoeuvre" by the Attorney-General's Office (DORH).

Responding to these accusations, Božinović said that in the first eight months of this year the police had brought corruption charges in 86 percent more cases than in the same period last year. "This means that the police, along with USKOK (anti-corruption office) and DORH, are fully committed to their work, and great changes can be seen in this regard."

"However, no changes can be seen in reactions from the Opposition. Whenever the police and DORH do something, the Opposition immediately says that it is politicisation. I cannot understand those people at all," the minister said.

Commented on the fact that one of the suspects in the Kovač case is a police officer, Božinović said that the police have zero tolerance to any illegal behaviour. Last year proceedings were launched against more than 540 police officers and so far this year against more than 320 officers, he said. 

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ZAGREB, 11 Sept, 2021 - Croatia remembers the victims of the 9/11 attacks, extending its condolences to the families and expressing solidarity with the United States and the American people, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković wrote on Twitter on Saturday. 

"The evil of terrorism is a global threat that we can eradicate through joint action and cooperation," Plenković said on the 20th anniversary of the attacks.

Three thousand people were killed in attacks by the Al-Qaeda terrorist group on 11 September 2001 after terrorists hijacked three aircraft and deliberately crashed them into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York and into the Pentagon. A fourth hijacked plane crashed into a field in Pennsylvania after passengers attempted to regain control of the aircraft from the hijackers.  

The 20th anniversary falls less than two weeks after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, the longest US war in history, launched in retaliation against the al-Qaeda conspirators and leaders and the Taliban who gave them refuge.

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ZAGREB, 11 Sept, 2021 - Međimurje County head Matija Posavec and the chairman of the management board of the County Road Directorate, Josip Kobal, have been granted a pre-trial release after being questioned by USKOK corruption investigators.

USKOK has said it has opened an investigation into six suspects in two separate cases, requesting investigative custody for only two suspects.

Lawyer Davorin Zalatarek confirmed to Hina on Saturday morning that his client Posavec had been released last night and that another suspect, SDP MP and former Čakovec Mayor Stjepan Kovač, was expected to be released soon. He said he could not discuss details because the investigation was still ongoing.

USKOK said on Saturday morning that Posavec had been released after admitting the crime he is suspected of, and that he had resigned as head of Međimurje County.

Lawyer Berislav Živković said he was not surprised that his client Kobal had been released, because there were no legal grounds for him to be remanded in custody.

Posavec is suspected of fixing jobs with county administration and of receiving a HRK 10,000 (€1,330) bribe from Kobal to secure another term of office for him on the management board of the Međimurje County Roads Directorate.

Kovač is suspected of using fake text messages with death threats against himself to prompt a police investigation and find out who was behind a website that wrote negative articles about him before the May local elections. Police officer Mario Sever and Damir Ledenčan, who sent staged threatening messages, are also suspects in this case.

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ZAGREB, 11 Sept, 2021 - Croatian immunologist Bojan Polić of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Rijeka has been elected President-elect of the European Federation of Immunological Societies (EFIS) for 2022-2024, Večernji List newspaper said on Saturday.

Polić was elected at a recent EFIS  general assembly on behalf of the Croatian Immunological Society. He received 38 votes, while his rival candidate gained 10 votes.

Over the next three years, Professor Polić will serve as the right-hand man to President Frederica Sallusto, after which he will become President of this organisation that brings together 35 immunological societies representing 14,000 researchers.

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ZAGREB, 11 Sept, 2021 - Croatia has registered 1,162 new coronavirus cases and 14 COVID-19-related deaths in the last 24 hours, the national COVID-19 response team said on Saturday.

A total of 559 infected persons are receiving hospital treatment and 55 of them are on ventilators. Currently there are 6,143 active cases in the country, and 12,937 people are self-isolating.

Since 25 February 2020, when the first case was recorded in Croatia, 383,108 people have been registered as having contracted the novel virus, of whom 8,427 have died and 368,538 have recovered, including 696 in the last 24 hours.

A total of 2,649,120 people have been tested to date, including 10,651 in the last 24 hours. 3,326,927 vaccine doses have been administered, with 43.31% of the total population, or 52% of adults, having received at least one dose. 1,647,073 persons have been fully inoculated, which is 48.80% of the adult population.

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ZAGREB, 11 Sept, 2021 - International associations of music publishers and independent publishing companies have called on members of the Croatian Parliament not to adopt the Copyright and Related Rights Bill because it will destroy the Croatian music industry.

They sent a letter to MPs saying that the adoption of the final bill, which is soon to receive its second reading in Parliament, would seriously harm the development of the Croatian music market as well as Croatian and European music performers, the Croatian Phonographic Association and the Association for the Protection, Collection and Distribution of Phonogram Producers' Rights said in a press release on Saturday.

The letter said that the bill would prevent future investment in music production and artists, as well as innovation in the music industry. The disputed articles do not respect the principle of contractual freedom and are an example of harmful intervention in the digital music market, regardless of the fact that there is no proof that this market is not functioning, it added.

If the present bill is adopted, it will affect the revenues, risk and viability of the music industry, and it would also affect new artists and the values of Croatian music. Introduction of any form of the mandatory collective exercise of artists' rights is a direct violation of the EU Copyright Directive and international copyright laws and would prevent artists from choosing the way of using and licensing their rights, said Helen Smith, executive chair at IMPALA, the European association of independent music companies that represents over 5,000 companies.

The present bill to implement the Copyright Directive on the digital single market will prevent the effective functioning of the Croatian music market and future investment and innovation in our industry. Yesterday, organisations from across the music industry sent a request to the Croatian Parliament to urgently amend this proposal and ensure a future for the Croatian music sector, said Frances Moore, chief executive at the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, which has over 8,000 members in 70 countries.

The letter clearly shows that we are not alone in our claims that the bill is not only unconstitutional and contrary to the EU Directive, but that is also contrary to publishers' practice in developed market-economy countries. Instead of regulating fair market relations and preventing monopolies certain associations would have in the event of its adoption, this proposal will only put us back, Maja Vidmar Klarić said on behalf of the Croatian Phonographic Association.

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September 11, 2021 - While baklava is not a traditional Croatian type of pastry, a pair of investors from the UK opened the biggest baklava factory in the EU in Croatia.

The company called New Bakery has been making baklava in Croatia for a while now, and they are one of the biggest producers of the Turkish-origin pastry in the world. Yesterday, as Igor Rahmetović reports for the Croatian Radiotelevision, a new site was opened in Donji Stupnik, which is a Zagreb suburb. It is the highest-producing site in the EU, with the most high-tech equipment in the field and numerous certificates of exellence, as well as halal and kosher certificates.

The company has been producing baklava in Croatia for the past 7 years. However, the older production site in Velika Gorica was not able to produce enough baklava to satisfy the ever-growing market of people with sweet tooth, so an additional investment has been made to increase the production. To date, the investors Constantine Azar and Mehmet Yasar Halim, both from London, invested over 5 million Euro into the baklava production in Croatia.

The New Bakery company produces over 500 tonnes of baklava per year, which translates to over 25 million individual baklava. Almost all of the baklava produced by them in Croatia will continue to be exported. Their products can be found in all the biggest supermarket chains in the world. Constantine Azar explained that the reason why they chose Croatia to base their operation is the excellent location, ports and the fact that there are enough workers (who know how to make baklava!) to work in their factory. Currently, there are 60 people working in the baklava factory in Donji Stupnik, but it was announced yesterday that they plan to employ 30 additional workers by the end of next year.