Politics

ZAGREB, November 1, 2020 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic spoke on the phone on Sunday with Zadar County prefect Bozidar Longin after a magnitude 4.7 earthquake rocked the wider Zadar area. The government and all services are ready to help the county, the government tweeted. Seismologists said the quake struck near Paklenica, 7 km north of Starigrad, at 2.15 p.m. The earthquake was felt across Zadar County, on the islands of Ugljan, Pasman and Murter, in the towns of Vodice, Sibenik, Drnis and Knin, in the neighbouring Sibenik-Knin County and in the Lika region. There have been no reports of damage…

ZAGREB, October 31, 2020 - Defence Minister Mario Banozic on Saturday laid a wreath and lit a candle at the Homeland War Victims Memorial Cemetery in Vukovar on the occasion of All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day. He also paid his respects to the victims at the Ovcara memorial and in Bogdanovci. Banozic said it was with pride and dignity that he was paying his respects to the defenders and all those who gave their lives for free and democratic Croatia as well as to the suffering of Vukovar in the Homeland War. "Vukovar meant everything for Croatia and…

ZAGREB, October 31, 2020 - Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic on Saturday extended his condolences to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis following a devastating earthquake which rocked their countries on Friday, the government said in a press release. In his notes, Plenkovic said he "received the news of the devastating earthquake with great sadness," extending his condolences to the high officials and the two peoples. He said that Croatia was willing to offer Turkey and Greece all the necessary help based on its experience with the Zagreb earthquake in March. "In these challenging times, in line with the…

ZAGREB, October 31, 2020 - War Veterans Minister Tomo Medved said in Vukovar on Saturday that the eastern city's Water Tower, which was inaugurated on Friday after being renovated, was a symbol of the defence of Vukovar and Croatia today and in the future. We must all be proud of the completion of its reconstruction, he added. Medved said the government supported the reconstruction project from the beginning, adopting at a session in Vukovar in 2016 a decision to support the project to whatever extent was necessary and investing more than HRK 20 million in the reconstruction. "Just as it has been a…

ZAGREB, October 31, 2020 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Saturday that in the first 100 days of its term the government had done what it had promised to do, including the adoption of a law on reconstruction following the March 22 earthquake, and that it was turned to the future and the fourth decade of Croatia's democracy. Plenkovic said this in response to questions from reporters covering his visit to Zagreb's central Mirogoj cemetery, where he laid wreaths on the occasion of All Saints' Day. Asked about the government's first 100 days in office, Plenkovic recalled the fast…

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 30th of October, 2020, in an interview with Media Service Week, CNB Governor Boris Vujcic spoke about whether the Croatian economy can withstand another lockdown, about recovery, the budget, international reserves and revealed whether the pandemic will make it harder for us to enter the Eurozone. Many countries are introducing lockdown, although we're wary of that word, in Croatia it is being talked about more and more often due to the worsening epidemiological situation. If that scenario happens again, can our economy survive it? ''We can, we can certainly survive even if there's a…

ZAGREB, October 30, 2020 - There are no Croatian nationals among the victims of the earthquake that struck Greece and Turkey on Friday, the Ministry of Foreign and European affairs said. A magnitude 7 earthquake hit the Aegean Sea south of the city of Izmir on the west coast of Turkey at 11:50 local time. The Turkish emergency management authority said that at least six people were killed and 202 were injured. At the moment, there is no official information that any Croatian national has been killed in the earthquake that struck Greece and Turkey, it was said in the ministry's press release.…

ZAGREB, October 30, 2020 - Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic on Friday condemned in the strongest terms Thursday's knife attack inside a church in the southern French city of Nice and expressed full support to France in its fight against terrorism. "Croatia condemns the Nice attack in the strongest terms, and sees that as an attack against our values," the Croatian premier writes this message in the French language on his Twitter account. He writes that Croatia expresses solidarity with France and the French in this distressing period. Plenkovic says he supports President Emmanuel Macron and the French government in their struggle against…

ZAGREB, October 30, 2020 - Croatian independent MEP Mislav Kolakusic has sent a letter to his colleagues in the European Parliament, complaining about the closure of the EU House due to the new COVID-19 outbreak claiming that COVID-19 is just a cold. "Tens of millions of our citizens fought numerous wars to preserve democracy. Millions of our citizens sacrificed their lives for the freedom of speech and movement, and we are closing the doors of the Parliament due to the fear of a possible cold," Kolakusic said in his letter which was carried by the Euractiv web portal. In his letter Kolakusic says that…

ZAGREB, October 29, 2020 - Croatia is establishing diplomatic relations with South Sudan, Somalia, the Central African Republic, Tonga and Bhutan, Croatian Foreign Affairs Minister Gordan Grlic Radman said on Thursday, noting that this will contribute to "the realisation of Croatia's foreign policy goals". Grlic Radman said after a government session that the goal of establishing those relations was "mutual strengthening of bilateral relations in the economic field and in all aspects of mutual interest". Diplomatic relations with those countries will be established through a permanent mission to the United Nations (UN) in New York. Grlic Radman said that Croatia thus…