Politics

ZAGREB, 26 Aug 2021 - President Zoran Milanović said at a ceremony commemorating civilian victims of the war who died 30 years ago in Kijevo, outside Knin, that reconciliation and forgiveness required reciprocity and not arrogance and haughtiness. Speaking of Karst areas where residents of Kijevo live and where the early medieval Croatian state hails from, Milanović said "our first churches were built here, our identity is here, our roots are here, this is stone." "Hardly anything grows in stone, and those who survive, who are strong, who resist, those have a worth and those cannot be rooted out. Those are the…

ZAGREB, 26 Aug 2021 - The Croatian Ambassador to Turkey, Hrvoje Cvitanović, who also covers Afghanistan, said in Zagreb on Thursday, that the situation in Afghanistan was getting more dangerous by the day, and believes that there is a threat of terrorist attacks. Cvitanović, who was attending a conference of Croatian diplomats in Zagreb, said that earlier in the day, there was an attack outside Kabul Airport and three people had died. We still do not know who is behind the incident, he added, The situation is more than complicated, and it is changing not by the hour but by the minute,…

ZAGREB, 26 Aug 2021 - President Zoran Milanović said on Thursday that the current anti-epidemic rules had no sense any more, and that Croatia should follow the example of Sweden rather than France and Germany considering measures taken to combat the COVID pandemic. Milanović said this did not mean that Croatia should not copy others, however, he admitted that the country was also a part of a wider community and "it cannot always be the way we believe is the smartest." "I think now that it would be more prudent to do something different than France and Germany or some…

ZAGREB, 25 Aug, 2021 - It is important that hate stops and is not passed on to new generations because only that way, can we build a better Croatia, Deputy Prime Minister Boris Milošević said at a commemoration for the civilian victims of the 1995 Operation Storm in Plavno and Grubori near Knin. "Unfortunately, those who know what happened in Grubori 26 years ago have chosen silence, they have chosen to protect those who committed the crime. Those who have chosen to keep silent and those who committed the crime, just as all of us here, need to be aware…

ZAGREB, 25 Aug, 2021 - Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić Radman said in Budapest on Wednesday that Croatia would fight illegal migrations and that a difference needed to be made between Afghan nationals who had been helping EU services and Afghan refugees who were the responsibility of the international community. "People who had been helping (us) within the European External Action Service (EEAS) and our soldiers in NATO, to whom we have a certain obligation, are one thing, and another thing are refugees who are burdening the entire international community," Galić Radman said after meeting his Hungarian counterpart Peter Szijjarto. The…

ZAGREB, 25 Aug, 2021 - The deadlines for the 3 October additional elections for representatives of ethnic minorities in councils in 16 cities and 55 municipalities and in 11 county assemblies started running on Wednesday, the State Election Commission (DIP) said today. Slates with candidates running in those polls should be submitted to DIP until the midnight on 7 September, and can be proposed by political parties and by groups of citizens who want to be represented by independent candidates. The State Election Commission calls for respecting gender balance which means at least 40% of candidates on a slate should be…

ZAGREB, 25 Aug, 2021 - Patriarch Porfirije of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) is personally financing scholarships in the new academic year for students from Croatia via the "Vladimir Matijević" fund which is managed by the Serb Privrednik association, reads a press release issued by the association on Wednesday. Underscoring that during his service in Zagreb, when he as Metropolitan ran the Eparchy of Zagreb and Ljubljana, Patriarch Porfirije supported and assisted the association's activities and scholarship holders and that he will continue to do so as the SPC head. "In the last academic year, Privrednik provided scholarships for 80 students, mostly from underdeveloped…

ZAGREB, 24 Aug, 2021 - Prime Minister and Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) leader Andrej Plenković said on Tuesday that the Ustasha salute "For the Homeland Ready" was already now illicit and that police filed reports with courts when such things happened, while it was up to the courts to decide on the matter. "The salute is already now illicit. This is something that no one questions," Plenković told reporters in Zagreb after a meeting of the HDZ leadership. He went on to say that on Monday, when  Black Ribbon Day, the Europe-wide Day of Remembrance for the victims of all totalitarian and…

August the 25th, 2021 - Numerous continental Croatian cities are hoping to get their hands on European Union (EU) Funds. Koprivnica, Cakovec and Varazdin are all on the hunt for EU cash injections following their recent decision on cooperation. As Poslovni Dnevnik/Ana Blaskovic writes, this year's Spancirfest not only turned the historic core of Varazdin into a festival stage once again, but also opened the door to cooperation between three continental Croatian cities: Varazdin, Koprivnica and Cakovec, all of which agreed on a joint application for individual European Union projects. "We've agreed on the models of our future joint cooperation…

ZAGREB, 24 Aug, 2021 - Prosecutorial authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina and former football coach Zoran Mamić's attorneys said  on Tuesday that they were opposed to his extradition to Croatia, claiming that the legal requirements for his extradition had not been met. Mamić's attorney Zdravko Rajić and Davor Martinović presented their arguments why Mamić should not be handed over to Croatia. Croatia's judiciary has requested Mamić's extradition on three grounds: to conduct his retrial based on a Supreme Court ruling quashing a part of the relevant verdict handed down by Osijek County Court ruling, to get him serve a sentence of four years and eight…