Politics

ZAGREB, 7, March 2021 - Local media said on Saturday the Social Democratic Party's candidate for mayor of Dubrovnik, Jadran Barač, turned himself in to the police this afternoon after threatening a neighbour. After Barač, the neighbour arrived at the local police station as well and pressed charges against him for making threats. Local media said the two had been in disagreement over neighbour relations for years and that after being interviewed by the police, Barač would be taken into custody. The police confirmed that a 37-year-old man was charged with making threats, which is punishable with up to three years…

ZAGREB, 2 March 2021 - President Zoran Milanović said on Tuesday he was shocked by the death of Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandić and that all he had to say about him, he had said in recent years. "I knew him personally, very personally and closely. We worked together for some time. All I had to say, I said in recent years. His death shocked me. It's sad, difficult," he told the press during a visit to Istria County. Bandić died of a heart attack on Sunday aged 65. Milanović said he would not attend the funeral tomorrow, recalling that he had…

ZAGREB, 2 March 2021 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Tuesday that he had not yet spoken with the President of the Republic about the selection of the Supreme Court President, underscoring that his solution was based on respecting the Constitution, law and the institute of a public selection procedure. Responding to questions from the press, Plenković said that he had not yet spoken  with President Zoran Milanović after Milanović said that he would not support any of the three candidates that applied for the position of Supreme Court President but that he would nominate his candidate and let parliament decide. Plenković said on Monday that he…

ZAGREB, 2 March 2021 - The European Parliament Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection has voted in a demand to improve online shopping, underlining the poor application of laws as one of the most important problemsand the poorer offer of audiovisual content, Croatian MEP Biljana Borzan said on Tuesday. She said in a press release that many Croatian citizens had complained to her that they did not feel equal in online shopping because "as soon as a website detects that they are from Croatia, they get a different offer, higher prices or are denied access." Borzan said such practice was banned in…

ZAGREB, 2 March 2021 - The Finance Ministry on Tuesday sold HRK 1.32 billion worth of treasury notes at an auction, HRK 120 million more than planned, including treasury bonds with six months' maturity that were sold without interest. In advance of the maturity of HRK 1.21 billion worth of treasury bonds, the Ministry offered HRK 1.2 billion for subscription, HRK 1 billion with a maturity of one year and HRK 200 million with six months' maturity. Financial institutions submitted bids totalling HRK 3.3 billion and the Ministry accepted HRK 1.32 billion or HRK 120 million more than planned. The Ministry issued HRK…

ZAGREB, 2 March 2021 - A commemoration was held in Zagreb's Croatian National Theatre (HNK) on Tuesday for late Mayor Milan Bandić with about 150 people attending due to restrictive epidemiological measures. Acting Mayor Jelena Pavičić Vukičević said that Bandić was a "politician whose work marked our contemporary history, while his talent, skills, focus and way of political life made him the greatest figure after the founder of the state, Franjo Tuđman, which even many of his political opponents admit." "He did not create a city closed within its walls, but a city that helped all Croatian regions and felt responsibility towards Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina too, as well…

ZAGREB, 1 March, 2021 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on Monday signed a condolence book which was opened in City Hall after the death of Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandić on Sunday, and on that occasion he said that Bandić had worked hard to make Zagreb a better city. Asked by the press outside City Hall if Bandić, who ran the city for 20 years, would be remembered as a negative or positive politician, Plenković said it was evident how much he had tried to do good things for Zagreb. There are good and less good things about anyone involved in politics, Plenković said, adding,…

ZAGREB, 1 March, 2021 - Jelena Pavičić Vukičević, who will lead the City of Zagreb until local elections in May following the death of Mayor Milan Bandić, has said she will not run in the elections. Speaking in an interview with the RTL commercial television channel on Sunday evening, the deputy mayor said she had tied her political career to that of Milan Bandić and was not considering running in May's polls. She said she had not had a chance to discuss whom she would support in the elections. "Now we need to organise a commemoration and the funeral, to…

ZAGREB, 1 March, 2021 - Human evil showed its ugliness in few places as it did in Jasenovac, but this place should be the foundation from which messages of peace will be spread, Serbian Orthodox Church Patriarch Porfirije said at the Jasenovac convent on Sunday. He arrived at the invitation of the bishop of Pakrac and Slavonia, Jovan. Among those who came to hear his sermon were the Roman Catholic Bishop of Požega, Antun Škovrčević, Serb National Council president Milorad Pupovac, Bosnian Presidency member Milorad Dodik, Banja Luka Mayor Draško Stanivuković, hundreds of believers from Croatia and the Bosnian Serb entity…

ZAGREB, 28 February, 2021 - By visiting the Jasenovac convent, Patriarch Porfirije is telling the Serb people where its identity is, the Serbian Orthodox bishop of Pakrac and Slavonia said on Sunday ahead of a visit by the new head of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC). "The Serb people's identity has two wings, one is the Kosovo and the other the Jasenovac wing. That's what defines our people and our Church and that's what Patriarch Porfirije recognises," Bishop Jovan said outside the convent ahead of the arrival of Porfirije and the Serb member of the Bosnian Presidency, Milorad Dodik. Also present…