Politics

ZAGREB, September 17, 2019 - Prime Minister and HDZ president Andrej Plenković said on Monday the party's leadership discussed full and strong support for President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović in her re-election campaign and maximum engagement by all party members in that, adding that they must act responsibly in the interest of the HDZ's victory in all upcoming elections. Speaking to the press after a meeting of the HDZ Presidency and National Council, Plenković said they also talked about the direction in which they were running the government and the country. "At the session there was strong and clear support for the…

ZAGREB, September 16, 2019 - Croatia advocates that negotiations on the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) should be concluded by the end of the year, but it is likely that the issue will be on the agenda during its presidency of the Council of the EU in the first half of 2020, the State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Andreja Metelko-Zgombić, said on Monday in Brussels. Metelko-Zgombić was attending a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council which among other things discussed the situation with negotiations over the next EU budget for 2021 to 2027. The European Commission…

ZAGREB, September 16, 2019 - It is unlikely that the necessary parliamentary two-thirds majority will in the near future change the way the President of the Republic is elected and his/her constitutional powers, legal experts and experts on constitutional law said at a round table organised by the GONG election-monitoring non-governmental organisation in Zagreb on Monday, ahead of presidential elections. Asked if the way the President is elected and the extent of his/her constitutional powers should be changed, the experts took different positions but were unanimous in the assessment that currently it would be very difficult to gather the parliamentary…

Index.hr, an independent Croatian news site, reports on September 16, 2019 that one of their journalists, Gordan Duhaček, was arrested this morning. As he was returning from Bosnia and Herzegovina to Croatia yesterday, he was told that the police were looking for him. He went straight to the police station in Heinzelova street as he returned to Zagreb, to see what that was about and discuss arrangements with them, as he was supposed to leave Zagreb today for a business trip. However, the police officers waited for him at the airport this morning, and have arrested him. Supposedly, he was…

ZAGREB, September 16, 2019 - The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) began a five-day conference in Vienna on Monday, bringing together delegations from more than 170 countries, including Croatia, to discuss the promotion of nuclear energy use for peacetime purposes. The Croatian delegation is led by Assistant Interior Minister Damir Trut, who said Croatia's cooperation with the IAEA was excellent. "Croatia fully supports IAEA activities and its attempts to meet the commitments from the NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty) and the use of atomic energy for peacetime purposes and development. Croatia is also an active participant its technical cooperation programmes," he said…

ZAGREB, September 16, 2019 - Leaders of three union federations asked parliament on Monday to call a referendum against the pension reform, otherwise they would call on citizens to take to the streets to ensure that the will of the 750,000 referendum petition signatories is honoured. SSSH leader Mladen Novosel told reporters outside parliament that they submitted the signatures more than three months ago and that, aside from the Public Administration Ministry's confirmation that enough signatures had been collected, there had been no word from the government or parliament about the next steps. The unions expect parliament to set the…

ZAGREB, September 15, 2019 - The current government and the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) are not pursuing a policy of divisions and exclusions, and their policy is that of inclusion and mutual tolerance, which is in the interest of the whole state, Parliament Speaker and HDZ Secretary-General Gordan Jandroković told the commercial broadcaster N1 on Sunday. "All of us active on the political and public scenes should be guided, first of all, by our conscience and the interests of the Republic of Croatia. I think that we must be responsible," Jandroković said in his interview with the N1, which…

ZAGREB, September 15, 2019 - Presidential candidate Miroslav Škoro has told the HTV broadcaster that if he were now the head of state, he would not have launch the procedure for possible ban on the Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS). Škoro said in a political show of the national television on Sunday that he felt disturbed by claims made by the SDSS leader Milorad Pupovac that "all of us are living in a state that resembles or will end up like a Fascist statelet in 1945". "This makes me concerned. If this is really true, I do not want to…

ZAGREB, September 15, 2019 - The main committee of the Croatian Social and Liberal Party (HSLS), a junior partner in the ruling coalition, on Sunday turned down the proposal of the party leader Darinko Kosor to leave the coalition at the state level. After the party leadership's meeting in the coastal town of Novi Vinodoski, Kosor said that the Main Committee had turned down his proposal with the sole explanation it would not be good if this party of liberal and civic orientation leaves the coalition due to the topic concerning ethnic minorities. This past Wednesday Kosor said that the…

ZAGREB, September 14, 2019 - Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) leader Milorad Pupovac said on Saturday he understood the messages President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović sent him recently in an open letter which enclosed an open letter she sent him in 2016. Speaking on national radio, Pupovac said: "I don't intend to reply to this kind of letter. I read it well and memorised it well and understood the messages. I understand what it means when the Armed Forces supreme commander sends you a letter, such messages, to me, a member of the Croatian parliament, a member of a national minority." Earlier…