Politics
Monday, 5 August 2019
Milanović Accuses Opponents of Selling Fake News, Wanting Tyranny
ZAGREB, August 5, 2019 - Presidential candidate Zoran Milanović said on Monday that President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović was selling Croatians fake news, and that presidential candidate Miroslav Škoro's advocating more powers for the president was a road to tyranny. After laying wreaths at Zagreb's Mirogoj cemetery on the occasion of Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day and Croatian Veterans Day, Milanovic commented on other presidential candidates and the central commemoration of Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day and Croatian Veterans Day in Knin. Milanovic laid wreaths and lit candles at the central cross in the Alley of Croatian Defenders, at the grave of…
Monday, 5 August 2019
Government Officials Say Operation Storm Croatia's Historic Success
ZAGREB, August 5, 2019 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said at a ceremony marking the 24th anniversary of Operation Storm in Knin on Monday that the 1995 operation was the moment that changed Croatia's history, telling citizens to awaken the self-confidence that helped them overcome the obstacles at the time and to look at the future with optimism. "Under the leadership of the first Croatian president Franjo Tuđman we liberated one-fifth of the then occupied areas and showed the world that the Croatian people decides about its fate on its own. The Croatian flag at the Knin Fortress told the…
Monday, 5 August 2019
Grabar-Kitarović Indirectly Announces Her Candidacy for Second Term
ZAGREB, August 5, 2019 - Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović on Monday hinted that she would rerun for presidency. "I am here in my capacity as the president of the republic, we will see each other in the next five years," the current head of state said in her brief address to reporters after a ceremony in the southern town of Knin, held on the occasion of Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day. She also extended to journalists her congratulations on the occasion of the holiday, marked on 5 August. Addressing Sunday's celebrations in Knin on the occasion of the 24th anniversary…
Monday, 5 August 2019
Central Celebration of Operation Storm Anniversary Starts in Knin
ZAGREB, August 5, 2019 - A wreath-laying and candle-lighting ceremony was held at a monument dedicated to Croatia's victory in the 1995 Operation Storm in Knin on Monday morning, the first in a number of events that will mark Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day and Croatian Veterans Day and the 24th anniversary of the combined military and police operation that ended an armed rebellion of local Serbs, helping restore state sovereignty in occupied central and southern parts of the country and enabling the peaceful reintegration of eastern Croatia in January 1998. A joint wreath was laid at the monument by…
Monday, 5 August 2019
Dejan Kovač of Princeton University Says to Run for President
ZAGREB, August 5, 2019 - Dejan Kovač, an economist at Princeton University, on Sunday announced his candidacy for Croatia's next president, saying that public procurement, pre-bankruptcy settlement procedures and government subsidies would be in the focus of his campaign. Kovač's candidacy was supported by the Croatian Social-Liberal Party (HSLS). A member of the American Economic Association and the Royal Economic Society and the first Croat to work at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs of Princeton University, Kovac said his decision to announce his candidacy on the day when the 1995 military and police operation Storm, which…
Monday, 5 August 2019
Presidential Candidate Škoro Advocates More Powers for President
ZAGREB, August 5, 2019 - Presidential candidate Miroslav Škoro said on Sunday that he did not intend "to play a pot plant or a pin-up model" if elected president. "I advocate a slightly more serious status when the post of president is concerned," Škoro told reporters during a visit to Sinj, where he arrived for the Sinjska Alka tournament, explaining that he called for more presidential powers because the current model was not good. He noted that over the past 20 years it had become evident that there was no parliamentary democracy in Croatia because political activity was reduced to…
Monday, 5 August 2019
Bandić's Party Dismisses Findings about Covert Electioneering
ZAGREB, August 5, 2019 - Slavko Kojić of the Labour and Solidarity Party of Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandić on Sunday dismissed the findings by the State Election Commission (DIP) that the City of Zagreb's billboards used during campaigning for May's European Parliament election covertly promoted Bandić's political party and were paid for with money from the city budget. In a report on an inspection of campaign financing in the EU election, DIP said that jumbo posters with information about the City of Zagreb were paid for from the city budget and were in fact covert electioneering by Bandić's party. City…
Sunday, 4 August 2019
SNV: Croatia Must Assume Responsibility for Crimes Committed in Operation Storm
ZAGREB, August 4, 2019 - The Serb National Council (SNV) on Sunday held a commemoration in Donji Lapac, a town in Lika-Senj County near the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina, with speakers at the event calling on Croatia to face the past and assume responsibility for war crimes committed during and in the aftermath of the 1995 Operation Storm and prosecute those responsible for them. SNV leader Boris Milošević said that the commemoration was an act of remembering the military and police operation Storm which 24 years ago "cleansed this area of Serbs" while today's state protocol did not envisage…
Sunday, 4 August 2019
Officials Issue Messages for Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day
ZAGREB, August 4, 2019 - Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on Sunday issued a message on the occasion of Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day and Veterans Day, saying that Croatians today remember with pride and special respect every life given for the freedom of Croatia, a law-based country that will be chairing the European Union in the first half of 2020. By celebrating Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day and Veterans Day, Croatia marks with pride the 24th anniversary of the magnificent military and police operation Storm. On 5 August 1995, Croatia's constitutional and legal order was restored in most of…
Sunday, 4 August 2019
Wreaths Laid at Zagreb Cemetery for Victory Day
ZAGREB, August 4, 2019 - Delegations of the Croatian government and the City of Zagreb on Sunday laid wreaths at the city's central Mirogoj cemetery ahead of Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day and Croatian Veterans Day and the 24th anniversary of the 1995 Operation Storm. Operation Storm was a combined military and police operation that was launched on 4 August 1995 and that ended a Serb armed rebellion, helping restore state sovereignty over occupied central and southern parts of the country and enabling the peaceful reintegration of eastern Croatia in January 1998. Wreaths were laid at the central cross in…
Sunday, 4 August 2019
Health Minister Responds to President’s Call for Replacement
ZAGREB, August 4, 2019 - Health Minister Milan Kujundžić on Saturday commented on recent statements by President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, noting that she had the right to assess the government and ministries' work but that his performance as minister would be judged by voters. In an interview with Croatian Radio on Friday, Grabar-Kitarović said she was unhappy that the recent government reshuffle did not include the Health Ministry. "The labour drain is due to working conditions and not wages. The situation in the health sector is perhaps not disastrous but it is truly in a very poor state and almost nothing…
