Politics

January 27, 2020 - We already reported on the military helicopter crash that happened today near Zlarin, when a Kiowa helicopter crashed into the Adriatic sea midflight. Tonight we bring you the latest updates. The Ministry of Defence reported the identities of the officers that were onboard the Kiowa Warrior OH-58Darrior OH-58D helicopter when it crashed near Zablaće on Monday. Major Marin Klarin, a pilot in the Croatian Air Force, is confirmed to have died in the accident. The search is still ongoing for the other officer on board the helicopter, First Lieutenant Tomislav Baturina. Damir Krstičević, the Minister of…

During the 2015 migrant crisis, Hungary and Slovenia built border barriers to thwart the influx of illegal migrants. Until recently, Croatia border guards have faced the daunting task of manually monitoring their unfenced 1,326 km border, which is also a non-Schengen EU border. However, with the help of advanced thermal imaging technology, Croatian border guards have finally gained an edge on stopping illegal migrant movement. Hungary Border Fence (Red) | Slovenia Border Fence (Gold) | Croatia Border No Fence (Green) | Wikipedia Unfenced Croatia EU Border 1,326 Kilometers Long The Hungarian border barrier, which spans the borders of Serbia and…

ZAGREB, January 27, 2020 - An MP of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party, Franjo Lučić, pleaded not guilty to the charges of attempted bribery of Drago Hedl, a reporter for the Telegram news website, at the start of his trial before the County Court in the eastern city of Osijek on Monday. The hearing opened with the prosecution presenting its evidence - an audio recording of a conversation between Lučić and Hedl. Lučić was originally indicted by the USKOK anti-corruption office in March 2018 on suspicion of attempting to bribe Hedl in 2017 when he asked Hedl not…

ZAGREB, January 27, 2020 - The liberation of the Auschwitz death camp marked the end of the darkest chapter in history, and educating young people about the Holocaust is key to building a society in which something like that will never happen again, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Monday. "The liberation of the camp in which over a million people were killed marked the end of the darkest chapter in European and world history," Plenković told Hina on arriving in Poland to participate, along with over 20 heads of state and government, in the commemoration of the 75th…

ZAGREB, January 27, 2020 - A training course for 18 border police, including police officers from countries of the so-called Western Balkans migrant route – Albania, North Macedonia, Kosovo, Serbia, Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, started in Valbandon on Monday. The training is being conducted by the Croatian Ministry of the Interior Police Academy, in cooperation with the German Police Academy as a partner in the project, and with the financial and technical assistance of Frontex. This is the first time the project includes police officers from third countries, primarily those along the Western Balkans migrant route. "Considering that the…

ZAGREB, January 27, 2020 - The coming months are crucial for reaching an agreement on the multiannual financial framework (MFF) for 2021-2027, which is why Croatia's presidency over the Council of the European Union is of utmost importance, it was said on Monday after the meeting of representative of the European Parliament's Committee on Budgets (BUDG) and Prime Minister Andrej Plenković. Finance Minister Zdravko Marić said after the meeting in Government House that the biggest focus of Croatia's presidency, apart from the four priorities, was the process of the multiannual financial framework (MFF). He underscores that the main part of…

ZAGREB, January 27, 2020 - President-elect Zoran Milanović on Monday said that the presidential inauguration would be "decent and dignified." The presidential inauguration will be held on February 18 in the President's Palace on Pantovčak Hill, he said and added that it will be "decent and dignified." "Tradition has to exist but I have decided for this. I have said what the criteria are and I hope no one will be offended," he said. Asked whether the former director of the SOA Security Intelligence Agency Dragan Lozančić has agreed to be one of his advisers, Milanović said that talks on…

ZAGREB, January 27, 2020 - On International Holocaust Remembrance Day on 27 January, Croatia's government joins in commemorating the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau in which 1.1 million people were killed with the aim of extermination of the Jews in that darkest episode of the history of the humankind. Millions of victims of the Holocaust are the permanent admonishment to the humankind about the disastrous fallout of criminal ideologies of racism and anti-Semitism, the government says in a press release it issued on Monday. All that also serves as the obligation of the current…

''Our problem is that no government has gathered enough courage to define the profession of lobbying,'' the owner of one of the largest lobbying companies in Croatia tells Viktor Vresnik from Novac (Jutarnji) when touching on the effects of the recent RBA case and lobbying in Croatia. That is quite clearly why we don't have the legal framework to pull lobbying out of the grey zone into which it has fallen today, here in Croatia and elsewhere, and because that is the case, the owner of one of the largest lobbying companies in the country agreed to speak about the complex topic…

ZAGREB, January 26, 2020 - Zoran Milanović, who was recently elected Croatian president, is supposed to testify on Monday before Zagreb County Court in the trial dubbed travel expense scam in which Tomislav Saucha, who was Milanovic's chief of staff during his premiership, and his secretary, Sandra Zeljko, are implicated. At the start of their trial, Saucha and Zeljko pleaded not guilty to the charges of falsifying 125 travel orders and defrauding the state budget of 960,000 kuna (130,000 euro). Saucha is charged with falsifying travel orders in collusion with Zeljko, who the prosecution alleges continued doing so after Saucha…