Politics

ZAGREB, September 6, 2019 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Friday that as far as he was concerned every school week could begin with the singing of the national anthem. "I believe it's important that the young learn to respect institutions and the state through the education system," Plenković told Hina. The story about introducing the national anthem in schools was brought by Vecernji List daily in today's issue after France passed a law under which kindergartens and schools have the obligation to display the French and EU flags, the national anthem's lyrics and the "liberty, equality, fraternity" motto…

ZAGREB, September 6, 2019 - Croatia's exports reached 66.4 billion kuna in the first seven months of 2019, an increase of 8.2% over the same period in 2018, while imports went up by 6.9% to 109.8 billion kuna, according to initial data from the State Bureau of Statistics (DZS) released on Friday. The foreign trade deficit was 43.4 billion kuna, up 2 billion kuna, while the coverage of imports by exports increased from 59.7% in the first seven months of 2018 to 60.4% in the same period this year. Exports to EU member states rose by 6.7% to 44.8 billion…

As Index/Gordan Duhacek writes on the 3rd of September, 2019, former Croatian diplomat Elizabeta Madjarevic, who was pulled from her post at the Croatian Embassy in Berlin recently, got in touch with Index with a request for the publication of a correction of the information the newspaper initially published last month, in which it uncovered some questionable social media posts from Madjarevic. To briefly recap, Index was the first to reveal that Elizabeta Madjarevic, as the first secretary of the Croatian Embassy in Berlin, had been spreading racist, homophobic and all in all unsavoury views, which prompted the Croatian Ministry…

ZAGREB, September 6, 2019 - Damir Škaro, a former HDZ member of Parliament, Olympic bronze medallist and current president of Automobile Club Siget, has been remanded in 30-day investigative detention following allegations of rape and sexual harassment by an Automobile Club employee, a Velika Gorica County Court investigating judge ruled on Thursday. The detention order was issued because he might try to interfere with witnesses and repeat the crime, court spokesman Ante Zeljko told Hina. According to unofficial sources, Škaro might try to interfere with four witnesses - three women who complained to a legal officer at the Croatian Automobile…

ZAGREB, September 6, 2019 - A group of about 20 Pakistani and Bangladeshi migrants were given notices of readmission to Bosnia and Herzegovina after it was established that they had entered Croatia illegally and after none of them applied for asylum or requested medical attention, the police told Hina on Thursday. The migrants were found in Pokupsko, south of Zagreb, where they stopped on their way to Slovenia. They had walked along a road from Velika Gorica and sat outside a church in Pokupsko waiting for the police to pick them up, according to the police report. The police found…

ZAGREB, September 6, 2019 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on Thursday commented on the decision by the Conflict of Interest Commission to launch proceedings against him over his failure to submit documents on his trip to Helsinki last year, saying that the Commission's action was unnecessary. "This whole story is a fabrication with one purpose and goal - to cause political damage to me and the officials in question," the prime minister told the press outside the government headquarters. He said that the Commission had no reason to take this action considering the documents which the government and his HDZ…

ZAGREB, September 5, 2019 - The unions of primary and secondary school teachers will not call a strike for now, after agreeing to pursue dialogue with the government on their demands for higher wages, the leader of the Secondary School Teachers' Union, Branimir Mihalinec, said in Zagreb on Thursday after meeting with the prime minister and relevant ministers. About 1,500 primary and secondary school teachers rallied outside the government headquarters on Thursday demanding a six percent rise in their wages. After the protest, Mihalinec and the leader of the Primary School Teachers' Union, Sanja Šprem, met with Prime Minister Andrej…

ZAGREB, September 5, 2019 - The Conflict of Interest Commission on Thursday launched proceedings against Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and several of his ministers for breaching public office and ignoring the Commission's request to submit documents related to trips to attend a European People's Party (EPP) conference in Helsinki. The Commission launched the proceedings against Plenković, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior Davor Božinović, former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture Tomislav Tolušić, former Minister of Demography, Family, Youth and Social Policy Nada Murganić and former Administration Minister Lovro Kuščević because they have not submitted the necessary…

ZAGREB, September 5, 2019 - The highest number of asylees in Croatia, 620, are accommodated in Zagreb and the lowest in counties reputed as multicultural, which points to the weakness of the state's policy, Večernji List daily said on Thursday. Since 2015, Croatia has granted international protection for 696 people, mainly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. According to Interior Ministry data, asylum has been granted for 620 and subsidiary protection for 76 applicants. The government has also met its 2015 and 2017 obligations to take in 250 Syrian refugees relocated from Turkey as well as adopting a third decision to…

ZAGREB, September 5, 2019 - The 11th Croatian contingent numbering 110 members, including seven women, was seen off in Zagreb on Wednesday to the Resolute Support peace mission in Afghanistan in which 39 states are participating, including 27 NATO members, with 17,000 troops. The ceremony was attended, among others, by Defence Minister Damir Krstičević as Prime Minister Andrej Plenković's envoy, President and Armed Forces Supreme Commander Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović's defence and national security advisor Zrinko Peternel, Armed Forces Chief of Staff General Mirko Šundov, and partner countries' military envoys. A minute's silence was observed in memory of lance corporal Josip Briški,…