Politics

ZAGREB, 12 January, 2021 - Serb National Council president Milorad Pupovac said on Tuesday the discussion on whether Banija or Banovina was the correct name for the Croatian region showed a strong politicisation of language and that both were linguistically correct. A professor at the Zagreb Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Department for Applied Linguistics, he told N1 television that "language here is a very politicised issue... with the intention to build the national Croatian identity" which, he said, often causes misunderstandings, lack of freedom in speakers and fears and uncertainty as to how to use one's own language. Post-war reconstruction Pupovac also…

ZAGREB, 12 January, 2021 - The leader of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) branch in Zagreb, Gordan Maras, on Tuesday called on structural engineers to inspect school and kindergarten buildings in Zagreb in the next five days to see if they are safe for holding classes after the December 29 earthquake. After the winter break, school is expected to resume on January 18. Addressing a news conference, Maras said that Mayor Milan Bandić and the head of the city department for education, Ivica Lovrić, had lied that structural engineers had inspected school buildings, which he said was evidenced by dozens…

ZAGREB, 12 January, 2021 - MOST MP Nikola Grmoja and party coordinator Luca Gaspar Sako have said that state institutions failed every time a disaster happened and that after MOST activists stopped preparing hot meals outside the school in Glina, local residents did not receive meals on Monday. "Judging by the messages I have been receiving, the system has not started functioning yet," Grmoja said at a news conference in Petrinja, a town in Sisak-Moslavina County hit by a 6.2 magnitude earthquake on 29 December. He said that MOST members had been on the ground in the quake-hit area from the first day,…

ZAGREB, 12 January, 2021 - The Civil Protection is not ready to respond adequately in the event of a disaster, the Ministry of the Interior concluded in its report for 2019, the Vecernji List daily says in its Tuesday issue. More specifically, the assessed readiness of the entire Civil Protection system to manage disaster risks and protect all categories of social values affected by disasters is low, the daily says. The report particularly deals with the readiness of Civil Protection units at the local level, which is barely satisfactory. Due to their low level of readiness, local Civil Protection units received the…

ZAGREB, 12 January, 2021 - If team solutions by the academic community and construction professionals are accepted, the reconstruction of the earthquake-hit areas could last two years, Construction Minister Darko Horvat said on Tuesday. Speaking in an interview with Croatian Radio, Horvat said that architects and civil engineers of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts were willing to prepare solutions for reconstruction and present them on February 1. "What we will opt for is yet to be decided," the vice-president of the task force dealing with the aftermath of the 29 December earthquake in Sisak-Moslavina County said, noting that…

ZAGREB, 12 January, 2021 -  The chairman of the management board of the state-owned company Pleter, Marijan Mareković, said on Monday, that immediately after the 29 December earthquake, Pleter had started preparing meals in barracks for quake victims in Sisak-Moslavina County. According to Mareković, in the evening of 29 December, Pleter commenced preparing meals for army troops deployed in the area as well as for beneficiaries of an old-age care home who were relocated to the barracks in Petrinja after the magnitude 6.2 quake. In the meantime Pleter has been tasked with preparing meals for all quake victims in the area.…

ZAGREB, 12, January, 2021 - Slovenia's Foreign Minister Anže Logar said on Monday that he was pleased with the support he received from parliament regarding the government's activities concerning decisions by Croatia and Italy to declare exclusive economic zones (EEZ) in the Adriatic Sea. I presented lawmakers with the background to the events and all the options that Slovenia has after Italy and Croatia declared exclusive economic zones in the Adriatic, Logar said after a meeting of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee. He added that the debate was constructive and that lawmakers were well informed of the matter and conveyed their support to the…

ZAGREB, 11 January, 2021 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Monday that he would take a stance on an inquiry commission after services in the field checked how many buildings covered by the post-war reconstruction in Sisak-Moslavina County had been damaged in the 29 December earthquake. "Everything related to post-war reconstruction needs to be brought to light. I have requested that all services in the field precisely identify how many buildings that were damaged in the earthquake in Sisak-Moslavina County are buildings repaired or reconstructed under the post-war reconstruction scheme. When we see what it is about, then we will take a stance," Plenković said…

ZAGREB, 11 January, 2021 - The leader of the We Can! platform Tomislav Tomašević said on Monday that the Zagreb City Administration should pay more attention to the safety of schools and kindergartens since classes begin in a week. A lot of buildings are still not safe for passers-by due to damaged chimneys, parts of the facade, roof tiles and bricks. This need to be cleared up urgently because citizens' safety is at stake, Tomašević told reporters in front of the Ivan Gundulić Primary School. Over 170 buildings, he said, were damaged in March, and according to City Administration data…

ZAGREB, 11 January, 2021 - The head of the task force for dealing with the aftermath of the 29 December quake, Minister Tomo Medved, on Monday expressed hope that the process of accommodating inhabitants of the quake-hit area in mobile homes and housing containers would be realised in the following 20 days. Speaking for Croatian Radio, Medved said that the programme for the purchase and provision of mobile homes and containers had started on the second day after the devastating earthquake and that there were 369 of them in the quake-hit area of Sisak-Moslavina County today. He also said that 299…