Politics

ZAGREB, June 2, 2020 - Croatia's Ambassador to Serbia, Hidajet Biscevic, said in Subotica on Monday that Serbia's progress on the journey to the European Union was in Croatia's interest. During his visit to the city of Subotica in Vojvodina where a sizeable Croatian community lives, the ambassador said that Serbia's accession to the EU was in Croatia's interest and therefore the two countries "are supposed to make sure that their outstanding issues are not an obstacle." Some of the issues about the status of the ethnic Croat minority can be in the foreseeable future be connected with the negotiating process between Serbia…

ZAGREB, June 1, 2020 - Minister Tomislav Coric, who is also the Croatian Democratic Union's election agenda coordinator on Monday said that the party's election platform is a sort of transformation of the economy as a response to the COVID crisis and to the economic crisis that impacted the entire world. "We will do that primarily through the affirmation of those sectors in which we will aspire for self- sufficiency and that of course includes the agriculture sector in particular and the energy sector," Coric disclosed. He underscored that the HDZ platform framework also comprehends reforms which relate to public administration hence an entire series of…

ZAGREB, June 1, 2020 - Agriculture Minister Marija Vuckovic, state-secretary in her ministry, Tugomir Majdak and deputy chief of staff in the prime minister's office, Tena Misetic will testify in the wind park scandal involving former state secretary Josipa Rimac, Hina heard from sources close to the probe. Vuckovic, Majdak and Misetic will be questioned as witnesses because their names were mentioned during wiretapping of conversations Rimac, a former state secretary in the Administration Ministry until last week when she was dismissed after the scandal broke out. According to sources with close knowledge of the investigation, Rimac allegedly mentioned Misetic in a conversation with Anton…

ZAGREB, June 1, 2020 - President Zoran Milanovic on Monday received a delegation of the Croatian creative and cultural industries cluster who pointed out the importance and need to support that sector. The delegation underscored that Croatia has great potential in that sector because through these activities it can secure a high added value for other economic branches, particularly tourism, the President's Office said in a press release. The delegation pointed out that it was of special importance for a strategy for the sector to be prepared as well as the needs for institutional and infrastructure support to develop the creative and…

ZAGREB, June 1, 2020 - The 6th contingent of Croatian troops that will participate in NATO's Enhanced Forward Presence mission in Poland was seen off on Monday from the barracks in Petrinja. Deputy chief of staff, Major General Sinisa Jurkovic,  who thanked the Croatian troops for their resoluteness and professionalism, underlined that the participation of the Croatian Army in the eFP mission in Poland was a very important segment and part of that mission and that Croatia's troops were fulfilling their duties and had shown that Croatia was a secure and reliable ally and partner. The sixth contingent comprises 80 troops, 6 of whom are…

ZAGREB, May 31, 2020 - Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) vice-president Ivan Anusic said on Sunday that the mission of Miroslav Skoro and his Homeland Movement in the coming parliamentary election was to "undermine the Christian Democrat and people's camp, the kind of which Social Democrats are unable to form on their own." Anusic said in a statement for the press that during his visit to Vukovar on Saturday, Skoro, whose platform is based on the 1991-95 Homeland War, had to answer a question from which he had been hiding ever since he returned to the political arena, namely where he had been in 1990. Anusic…

ZAGREB, May 30, 2020 - Opposition Social Democratic Party (SDP) leader Davor Bernardic said on Saturday, on the occasion of Statehood Day, that the only reform implemented by the government led by Andrej Plenkovic was the reform of the holiday calendar. Offering his congratulations to Croatians for Statehood Day, Bernardic noted that Statehood Day was again observed on May 30 by a decision of the incumbent government. "Holiday dates change, corruption stays, corruption was and remains the trademark of this government, led by the HDZ," said Bernardic, adding that he could not help but think that the latest arrests in a…

ZAGREB, May 30, 2020 - Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Saturday that he was sorry the President was calling Statehood Day an election rally of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), underscoring that it was bad he spoke in such a way about positive legislation passed by the parliament. "I think it is bad that the President of the Republic speaks in such a way about positive legal regulations passed by the parliament," Plenkovic told reporters commenting on a statement by President Zoran Milanovic that May 30 was not Statehood Day and that it was a result of one…

ZAGREB, May 30, 2020 - President Zoran Milanovic said on Saturday, after a wreath-laying ceremony at Zagreb's Mirogoj cemetery on the occasion of Statehood Day, that he was not boycotting the commemoration of that day, but that it was an election rally and a promise by a political administration that was now being fulfilled. "This is an election rally. I am not boycotting anything. This is a promise by a political administration that is now fulfilling it. I consider that legislative decision a boycott of common sense and of the will of the majority of people in this country," the president…

ZAGREB, May 30, 2020 - Josipa Rimac, the Public Administration Ministry State Secretary who was fired on Friday, presented her defense to anti-corruption investigators but she did not answer any questions, and after spending the night in detention she could be taken to the investigating judge on Saturday, her lawyer said. Lawyer Zeljko Gulisija told the HTV public broadcaster on Friday that his client could be taken to the investigating judge on Saturday if the anti-corruption office USKOK asked that she be remanded in custody. Gulisija said that his client was "shocked by today's events" after earlier in the day she was arrested with…