Politics

ZAGREB, 6 Jan 2021 - A man who attacked a Croat family from Subotica has been convicted to three months house arrest, the Croatian National Council (HNV) said on Thursday, underscoring that this is the first conviction for an ethnically motivated crime against members of the Croat minority in Serbia. HNV recalled that the incident occurred on 2 August 2021 in downtown Subotica when the man, identified as B.P., hurled several insults based on ethnic grounds and then physically attacked Zoran Brajković, throwing him to the ground. HNV welcomes the professionalism of the High Court in Subotica, underscoring that this is the "first conviction…

January the 6th, 2022 - The late Mayor Milan Bandic, who passed away back in spring last year from what was then reported as a massive heart attack, has left a very long legacy behind him. From political scandals and serious allegations to being a longtime corruption suspect followed closely by USKOK, one cannot ever say that the former Zagreb mayor had a boring life. His widow, Vesna Bandic, about whom we recently wrote, has stated that she doesn't know where all this money ''hidden away with friends'' the late Mayor Milan Bandic was claimed to have, but it seems…

ZAGREB, 5 January, 2022 - President Zoran Milanović said on Wednesday that the US administration's offer to provide the Croatian ground forces with armoured fighting vehicles also has  strategic and political significance for Croatia, criticising the government for slowness in decision-making. "This offer would ensure the continuation of our very successful defence cooperation with the country that has one of the strongest armed forces and the biggest military industry in the world, Milanovć told a news conference in Zagreb, underscoring that the Minnesota National Guard uses the same version of the Bradley vehicles offered to Croatia. The president said that stalling the decision…

ZAGREB, 5 January, 2022 - Physical Planning, Construction and State Assets Minister Darko Horvat said on Wednesday that the opposition had the right to call for his resignation, adding that everyone involved in the post-earthquake reconstruction process has their share of the responsibility. "The opposition has that right and let them exercise it. However, I am confident that the discussion in Parliament and the government report will show there is no need for such a process," Horvat said after a cabinet meeting.  Horvat was not specific when asked by the press if he was satisfied with the absorption of only 1.6%…

ZAGREB, 5 January, 2022 - It is in Croatia's interest for Bosnia and Herzegovina to join the European Union because that is the best solution for a stable and functional Bosnia and Herzegovina and all of its peoples and citizens, Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić Radman said in Vitez on Tuesday. The Croatian minister of foreign and European affairs is on a two-day official visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and on the first day he visited Vitez, where he met with Croatian officials from central Bosnia. After the meeting, he told reporters that the goal was to analyse the needs of Croats…

ZAGREB, 5 January, 2022 - The USKOK anti-corruption office on Tuesday dismissed allegations by the National weekly that prosecutor Krešimir Ostrogonac had stopped the interrogation of Mirela Alerić Puklin, an indicted former prosecutor in the Agrokor case, after she said that she knew how USKOK had ended the Borg affair. In its denial USKOK claims that Ostrogonac, a deputy to the USKOK director, conducted Alerić Puklin's questioning in line with the Criminal Procedure Act and the presentation of defence which the former prosecutor, who in November 2021 was suspected of leaking information from investigations related to Agrokor, chose herself in the presence of her…

ZAGREB, 5, January, 2022 - Croatia's Foreign and European Affairs Minister Gordan Grlić Radman on Tuesday began his two-day visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina, with his first stop in the village of Križančevo Selo and Vitez, central Bosnia and Herzegovina. Grlić Radman said that he had come to this part of Bosnia and Herzegovina to convey a message of encouraging words to local Croats and also to express Croatia's support to efforts to preserve peace and stability in that country. In Križančevo Selo, the minister laid a wreath at the monument erected in tribute to more than 60 war victims…

ZAGREB, 4 Jan 2021 - Zagreb Mayor Tomislav Tomašević said on Tuesday that Zagreb Holding has around 500 surplus workers and that the Zagreb Holding Group has around 700 surplus workers, noting that consultations are underway between the management of this city-owned multi-utility conglomerate and trade unions. Of the 700 surplus workers at the level of the Zagreb Holding Group, around 100 hold managerial positions as coordinators and advisors while the labor surplus is highest among the administration staff, Tomašević said at a regular press conference. The Zagreb Holding management has formally started consultations with trade unions on the surplus labor even though talks have been…

ZAGREB, 4 Jan 2022 - Consumer spending in Croatia reached a record-breaking level in 2021 as Croatians spent HRK 17.5 billion in December alone. "The data on record-breaking spending in December partly surprised us, but that's what we expected. You could see that the whole of last year was really good, notably, the 5% increase in the value of fiscalised receipts compared with 2019," Finance Minister Zdravko Marić said in an interview with HTV public television on Monday evening. Marić said that the record for last month was set on 23 December when nearly 8 million fiscalised receipts were issued and their value…

ZAGREB, 3 Jan 2022 - Former Minister for Regional Development and EU Funds Gabrijela Žalac has been released from investigative custody after all witnesses in the so-called Software case have been interviewed and there is no risk of her interfering with witnesses, a Zagreb County Court investigating judge ruled on Monday. The other suspects, former Central Finance and Contracting Agency (SAFU) director Tomislav Petric and IT company owners Mladen Šimunac and Marko Jukić, are expected to be released later this week, after all, witnesses have been questioned, Hina learned from sources close to the investigation. On 10 December, the investigating judge extended…