Politics

ZAGREB, September 2, 2019 - Croatia's Interior Ministry on Monday said that it was not acquainted with a case of alleged violence against migrants that Serbia's office for refugees and migrants reported about last week. The Serbian office claimed last Saturday that Croatian border police staff had brutally beaten an Afghan minor. "We consider this one more unfounded and uncorroborated accusation against the Croatian police forces because of their persistence and resoluteness in the protection of the state border which is also the European Union's external border," the ministry said in a press release. Croatia's police have prevented 9,487 attempts…

ZAGREB, September 2, 2019 - The parliamentary Credentials and Privileges Commission on Monday stripped MP Lovro Kuščević of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and a former public administration minister of parliamentary immunity at the request of the State Prosecutor's Office (DORH) for the purpose of pressing criminal charges on suspicion of abuse of office and powers. DORH suspects Kuščević of wrongdoing in real estate transactions and of abuse of office while he was at the helm of the municipality of Nerežišća and that more suspects were involved in the affairs. Even though the commission's chairman Željko Tušek appealed to MPs…

ZAGREB, September 2, 2019 - Interior Minister Davor Božinović said in a television interview on Sunday evening that the migrant wave was less intense than four years ago but that the number of illegal migrants had increased, adding that Croatia was following the rules and would not allow illegal migrations. "The migrant wave has actually never stopped. It is much less intense than in 2015 and 2016. The main difference is that in 2015 migrants were invited to western Europe, while the situation today is completely different," Božinović told the HRT public television service. He said that the EU today…

ZAGREB, September 1, 2019 - Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović attended in Warsaw on Sunday a commemoration marking the 80th anniversary of the start of World War II, her office said in a press release. "We are here to honour all war victims, both in Poland, which was the first to start fighting Nazism, and in all other states which stood up in the defence of freedom and peace in Europe and the world. The Croatian people, proportionate to its population, contributed the most to the antifascist struggle in Europe in which more than half a million Croatian citizens actively took…

ZAGREB, September 1, 2019 - The Brazilian Navy's training ship BRASIL (U27) sailed into Split's Lora naval port on Friday night, where it will stay until September 3 on a visit to the Croatian Navy and the City of Split, the Croatian Defence Ministry said on Saturday. The visit is part of the military cooperation between the two countries' navies. On Monday, the ship's commander, Captain Alexandre Bessa de Oliveira, and a delegation will visit the Fleet Admiral Sveto Letica-Barba barracks for talks with Croatian Navy officers. The BRASIL is 130 metres long, 13.52 m wide and 30.72 m in…

As Slobodna Dalmacija writes on the 31st of August, 2019, Ivica Tolić, a former HDZ MEP and the war commander of the 3rd Imotski Battalion of the 4th Guards Brigade, has passed away. He tragically died far too prematurely, just one day before his 51st birthday. He was born on September the 1st, 1968 and retired from political life after a term in the European Parliament due to a serious disease, more specifically esophageal cancer. Back when he was very young, at the age of 22, he joined the Croatian Army (HV), and with the 4th Guards Brigade he fought…

ZAGREB, August 31, 2019 - The driver, a 45-year-old Serbian national suspected of causing an accident in which a female migrant lost her life when he left his van while it was sinking, was on Saturday remanded in custody after he was arrested at the Bajakovo border crossing on late Friday. The suspect was admitted to prison in Sisak, local police reported today. The fugitive was apprehended in a bus at Bajakovo while he was trying to cross from Croatia into Serbia. The suspect was driving the van transporting 11 illegal migrants through Croatia on 25 August and in his…

ZAGREB, August 31, 2019 - President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović said on Friday she condemned any violence but added that "not every incident which occurs between Croatian citizens of different ethnicity can be qualified a priori as an ethnic incident, i.e. ethnically motivated violence." "I won't allow that in Croatia because it's very unpleasant and irresponsible when politicians start commenting on and labelling those incidents, either by ignoring actual facts that are established in an official investigation or by not caring about those facts at all. That's very dangerous because it causes a new spiral of violence, intolerance and disorderly conduct. I…

ZAGREB, August 30, 2019 - International Day of the Disappeared, observed on August 30, was marked by wreath-laying ceremonies at the town cemetery in Vinkovci on Friday, and on that occasion War Veterans Minister Tomo Medved said that Croatia was still searching for 1,892 people who had gone missing in the 1991-1995 war. Medved reiterated that the government was committed to shedding light on the destinies of people who had been unaccounted-for since the war. "This is the humanitarian issue of top priority," he underscored during the commemorations in the eastern town of Vinkovci. The minister criticised Serbia for its…

ZAGREB, August 30, 2019 - The HVIDR-a association of Homeland War veterans on Friday stated that it demanded a public apology from Milorad Pupovac over his "reprehensible statements", or Prime Minister and Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) leader Andrej Plenković should sever the coalition with Pupovac's SDSS party. HVIDR-a, an association of disabled war veterans, is accusing Pupovac of crossing the line with his recent interview with the Radiosarajevo.ba web portal in which this Croatian Serb leader accused Croatia of turning into a factor of instability and claimed that some Catholic dignitaries and war veterans played an important role in promoting…