Politics

ZAGREB, 15 Nov 2021 - The Croatian Journalists Association (HND) on Monday warned that the head of the HRT public broadcaster's "Business operation" unit, Mislav Stipić, has filed a private slander lawsuit against two HND vice-presidents, thus continuing a string of lawsuits against reporters and HND leaders. Stipić has sued HND vice-presidents Branko Mijić and Goran Gazdek over a statement published on 12 March under the title "Bačić's taking to court leading people of the HND and Croatian Trade Union new attack on media freedoms", the HND said in a statement. The latest case continues the shameful string of lawsuits against reporters that…

ZAGREB, 15 Nov 2021 - The value of fiscalised receipts in Croatia last week was 14% higher than in the comparable week of 2020 and 7% higher than in the same period of 2019, show data released by the Tax Administration on Monday. In the period from 8 to 14 November 2021, the total value of fiscalised receipts was HRK 3.6 billion, HRK 440.8 million, or 14% more than in the same period of 2020. At the same time, the number of receipts issued grew by 15% to 40.5 million. For more on politics, follow TCN's dedicated page.

ZAGREB, 15 Nov 2021 - Minister of Labour and Pension System Josip Aladrović on Monday said that there is no rational reason to reject being tested for coronavirus, underscoring that employers would decide on the fate of those who refused to be tested. "We can try and have understanding, for a certain period of time, for people who do not wish to get vaccinated. However, there is no rational reason to reject testing and I think that we all need to show responsibility here," Aladrović told reporters. Speaking ahead of the introduction of COVID certificates in all state and public service…

ZAGREB, 15 Nov 2021 - Croatian President Zoran Milanović had a private one-on-one meeting with Pope Francis in Vatican City on Monday, at the start of his official visit to the Vatican. Gift exchange is customary at the end of private audiences and according to unofficial sources, Milanović will present the Pope with a 14th-century Glagolitic missal, the Missal of Duke Novak. The letters of the missal were later used for the first Croatian printed book Missale Romanum Glagolitice. The missal was written by the royal knight Novak Disislavić as a pledged gift to a church, where he was to be buried after death.…

ZAGREB, 15 Nov 2021 - Croatia's Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić Radman warned on Monday that unitarism and separatism in Bosnia and Herzegovina were causing instability and that it was crucial to abide by the principle of equality of the constituent peoples. "Unitarism and separatism have been growing stronger in Bosnia and Herzegovina, causing instability to increase. The solution is respect for the principle of equality of the constituent peoples. The reform of electoral legislation is a key strategic issue and we need urgent progress on that," the minister said ahead of a meeting of EU ministers of foreign affairs, with Western Balkans being…

ZAGREB, 15 Nov 2021 - Due to their distrust of politicians, European citizens will ask to participate directly in future decision-making in the European Parliament, a Croatian citizen taking part in an online panel debate on democracy in the EU on Sunday said. Faced with a drop in citizens' trust, the European Parliament, the European Commission, and the Council of the EU in September and October invited 800 randomly selected EU citizens to discuss topics important for the 27-member bloc in the European Parliament in Strasbourg. A group of 200 citizens discussing European democracy, rule of law, and security gathered again from…

ZAGREB, 14 Nov, 2021 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Sunday that protesting against vaccination was allowed and that everyone was entitled to their opinion, but added that the government would not step down and there would be no early election. "We must respect each other. I haven't noticed that some of the protesters have asked us to meet with them. I heard they call us Mengele and want resignations. We are not like Mengele," he told the press, adding, "all we are doing is in the interest of citizens." He said it was good that more than two million people in…

November the 14th, 2021 - Former HDZ PM Ivo Sanader is known for having been accused of being involved in multiple scandals and affairs, and his long lasting legal procedures are just as well known to the Croatian public. The Supreme Court, however, has just acquitted him in one affair. As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the Supreme Court has partially reversed and partially upheld the acquittal of the Zagreb County Court in the case of former HDZ PM Ivo Sanader in the well known HEP-Dioki case along with Ivan Mravko and Robert Jezic. Part of it has become statute-barred (no longer…

ZAGREB, 13 Nov, 2021 - President Zoran Milanović on Saturday criticised Prime Minister Andrej Plenković's statement that he expected Milanović to release a letter from the military chief-of-staff, saying "such cynicism and contempt for the truth and rules is ruining Croatia spiritually and materially." That letter is to his defence minister and is classified, Milanović told press. In the letter, he said, the military chief-of-staff "warns, asks, even tells (the minister) that he is harassing the entire system, that he is strategically mobbing him and jeopardising the system." "That document is not secret, I can declassify and make it public tomorrow, but I wanted…

ZAGREB, 13 Nov, 2021 - President Zoran Milanović said on Saturday Croatia was richer by HRK 2 billion a year from EU funds but that it was too little. "When you pay everything, when you absorb everything, when you remove the money for agriculture, which is actually a social fund for the preservation of agriculture which will last as long as France wants it to, that's HRK 2 billion a year, that's one-fifth of Zagreb's budget... that's too little," he said in Trogir at a meeting of the Town Council organised on the occasion of the day of the coastal town. Milanović said the Recovery and…