Politics

ZAGREB, 20 Dec 2021 - The President of the Republic and Armed Forces Commander in Chief, Zoran Milanović, said on Monday that the Dr. Franjo Tuđman Croatian Military Academy was created amid the war and nation-building, underscoring that the Croatian Armed Forces served to defend the country and were respected and loved by the people. "I've arrived from an institution that has marked its 30th anniversary this morning -- the Croatian National Bank (HNB). That 30th anniversary isn't actually real because that institution had existed before. This one, yours and ours, hadn't existed, it was created amid the war and…

ZAGREB, 20 Dec 2021 - The Croatian National Bank (HNB) is the central monetary institution that had a crucial stabilizing role in the past and now has an important role on Croatia's path to the euro area, a ceremony marking 30 years of the HNB was told on Monday. On 25 June 1991, parliament adopted a constitutional decision on Croatia's sovereignty and independence and the following 8 October, a decision severing all ties with the former Yugoslavia. That day, the government adopted a decree on the HNB which went into force on 23 December. Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said the HNB…

ZAGREB, 20 Dec 2021 - President Zoran Milanović believes that Prime Minister Andrej Plenković didn't make a mistake by going to Sarajevo but he should have used a mechanism at Croatia's disposal in Brussels to block the adoption of the conclusions by the Council of the EU concerning Bosnia and Herzegovina. "Plenković didn't make a mistake by going to Sarajevo but he did make a mistake when he did not, consciously or intentionally, use the mechanism that Croatia has at its disposal in Brussels and that is to block the adoption of the conclusions that are in contradiction to Croatia's starting positions,"…

ZAGREB, 20 Dec 2021 - Croatian President Zoran Milanović said on Monday, a day after canceling a visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina due to security risks, that he would come again. Milanović yesterday canceled a visit to Travnik and Nova Bila and today would not elaborate on the security risks. He said he would come to BiH again and that "no morality rabble-rousers will stop me." "They can get lost", he added. "I can't be friends with everybody. If one should be in a conflict with someone, and that's the unitarist clique in Sarajevo who say they are patriots, I will be…

ZAGREB, 20 Dec 2021 - Croatia's Constitutional Court will on Tuesday consider the constitutionality of the digital COVID passes for access to hospitals and the mandatory vaccination against coronavirus in healthcare and social welfare institutions. The topic of COVID certificates in the whole public sector will not be on the agenda, as the government has not yet notified the Court about its position on the matter, the Constitutional Court said on Monday, adding that it had sent a reminder to the government concerning that topic. For more on politics, follow TCN's dedicated page.

ZAGREB, 20 Dec 2021 - The Croatian ministry of the interior has commissioned an earthquake simulator that can simulate the ground motion of earthquakes up to intensity 9 on the Mercalli scale, the Večernji List daily reported on Monday. The purpose of that container, worth HRK 3.3 million (€440,000) without Value Added Tax, is to enable participants in exercises that take place in such containers to experience various sorts of tremors. The interior of the container is furnished with movable objects which can be found in an ordinary living room, and sound effects typical for earthquakes will also be simulated during exercises. The…

ZAGREB, 20 Dec 2021 - Nikola Grmoja of the Bridge party said on Sunday they had collected a sufficient number of signatures for their referendum petitions for the transfer of the powers of the national COVID-19 crisis management team to the parliament and the abolishment of COVID certificates. This opposition party started collecting signatures on 4  December at over 1,200 venues across Croatia, and the two-week deadline for the initiative expired at midnight on 18 December. For a referendum campaign to be successful, its organizers must collect the signatures of 10% of the electorate or 368,446 signatures. Grmoja, however, stopped short of specifying the number of…

December the 20th, 2021 - The Republic of Croatia has an enormous 320 million euros coming to it by the end of 2021, and it must utilise it in full by mid-2023, by June of that year to be more precise. With Petrinja still shamefully waiting for redevelopment and reconstruction almost one entire year since the devastating earthquake struck, there's no time like the present. As Poslovni Dnevnik/Suzana Varosanec writes, Minister of Physical Planning, Construction and State Property, Darko Horvat, said that Croatia is absolutely ready to accept EU grants which will be spent on reconstructing Petrinja following 2020's earthquake.…

ZAGREB, 19 Dec, 2021 - Member of parliament Goran Dodig was on Saturday re-elected president of the HDS Christian democrat party for a four year-term. Branko Hrg was elected Dodig's deputy while Davor Vukmirić was elected HDS vice-president. Dodig, was was the sole candidate for HDS president, said after his re-election that the shortcomings of today's society called for fast and effective solutions. "Christian democracy is a positive path towards well-being and prosperity," he said, noting that one should live in line with the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit - wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of…

ZAGREB, 19 Dec, 2021 - Companies' representatives, advertisers, politicians and government members are the untouchables in the media, according to a survey which journalist and editor Đurđica Klancir did for the GONG civil society organisation. Although those in power often claim there is no censorship in Croatia's media sphere, more than two in three journalists answered in the affirmative when asked if they were exposed to pressure due to their stories in the past two years, GONG says on its website. Also, two in three respondents said they witnessed pressure on their newsrooms by power-wielders, media owners, and their own outlet's marketing departments. Thirty experienced journalists and editors…