Politics
Monday, 24 June 2019
Interview with Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, President of Croatia
June the 24th, 2019 - Since 2015, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović has been President of the Republic of Croatia. Prior to that, the 50-year-old NATO Assistant Secretary General for Public Diplomacy has so far been the highest ranking woman in the history of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Furthermore, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović is the first female president of independent Croatia. Sven Lilienström, founder of Faces of Democracy, spoke with Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović about Croatia’s Presidency of the EU Council in 2020, the gender roles in Croatia and NATO as the backbone of Europe’s security architecture. Ms. President, you are our 66th “Face of Democracy”. How significant are democracy and democratic values to you personally?…
Monday, 24 June 2019
Victims of Jadovno WWII Death Camp Commemorated
ZAGREB, June 24, 2019 - A ceremony was held in Jadovno, about 20 kilometres west of the central town of Gospić, to commemorate over 10,000 Serbs, Jews, Roma and Croats killed in an Ustasha-run concentration camp there in 1941. The commemoration was organised by the Serb National Council, the coordinating body of Jewish communities in Croatia, the Serb Orthodox Eparchy of Upper Karlovac and the Alliance of Anti-Fascist Fighters and Anti-Fascists (SABA), whose leaders warned of war crimes committed by the Nazi-allied Ustaha regime being denied in present-day Croatia. "We want the whole truth about these horrifying death camps to…
Monday, 24 June 2019
Slovenian President: Border Arbitration Ruling Will Be Implemented
ZAGREB, June 24, 2019 - Slovenian President Borut Pahor said on Sunday that Slovenia wanted to have good relations with all its neighbours, including Croatia with which it is in dispute over the validity of the border arbitration process. "The border has been defined. We need some patience and statesmanlike wisdom so that we wouldn't make any mistakes because the arbitration ruling will be implemented sooner or later," Pahor said. He was speaking in an interview with Slovenian television ahead of Statehood Day, observed on June 25, focusing mostly on internal and European affairs. Pahor said that he considered Croatia's…
Sunday, 23 June 2019
Conservative NGO Loses Suit against Former President Josipović
ZAGREB, June 23, 2019 - The non-governmental organisation Vigilare, led by Catholic activist Vice Batarelo, has lost a legal case against former president Ivo Josipović who it claimed discriminated against Catholic believers. The Supreme Court ruled in April that by saying that "Croatia is a secular state, not a Catholic jamahiriya" Josipović did not disturb or discriminate against the Catholic faithful. It said that his statement may have hurt Roman Catholics but did not put them in a less favourable position in relation to other groups. The dispute arose after Josipović posted an interview by Ivica Maštruko, a member of…
Sunday, 23 June 2019
Pop Singer Miroslav Škoro Wants More Powers as President
ZAGREB, June 23, 2019 - Pop singer Miroslav Škoro announced in a video message on his Facebook page on Sunday morning that he would run for President, saying that his decision was prompted by his belief that Croatia needed a stronger constitutional role for its President. He said that the gist of his platform was forming an alliance with the people rather than maintaining the rule of political elites who make compromises away from the public eye and against the will of the people. "I want to be a people's president and accountable only to you," Škoro said, stressing…
Sunday, 23 June 2019
WJC Denounces Attempts by Croatian Authorities to Whitewash Holocaust History
ZAGREB, June 23, 2019 - The World Jewish Congress has denounced the plan to build a monument to Holocaust victims in Zagreb as an attempt to downplay the role of the Nazi-allied Independent State of Croatia (NDH) in the war crimes, and called on the city's authorities to scrap the plan. "The World Jewish Congress (WJC) joins our affiliated community in Croatia in denouncing the decision of the Zagreb City Assembly to erect a monument to the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust that blatantly ignores the active role taken by the Independent State of Croatia under the Ustasha…
Sunday, 23 June 2019
Presidential Envoy Booed at Jazovka Commemoration
ZAGREB, June 22, 2019 - About 300 people gathered at the Jazovka pit near Sošice near the Slovenian border, about 70 kilometres west of Zagreb, to commemorate victims of communist crimes committed in the aftermath of World War II. The ceremony was addressed, among others, by Ante Deur, the envoy of President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović under whose auspices this year's memorial pilgrimage took place. His speech was interrupted by loud whistles and abusive language from those gathered. Whistles began when Deur said that President Grabar-Kitarović was continuing the first Croatian president Franjo Tuđman's policy of national reconciliation under the slogan of…
Saturday, 22 June 2019
Pop Singer Miroslav Škoro to Announce Presidency Bid on Sunday
ZAGREB, June 22, 2019 - Pop singer, composer, arranger and producer Miroslav Škoro will formally announce his bid for President of Croatia on Sunday morning, he wrote on his Facebook page on Saturday afternoon. "As I have promised, I will announce my decision to run for President tomorrow at 9 am sharp on this Facebook page. I thank everyone ... for helping me reach this decision," the singer wrote. Škoro has earned a doctoral degree from the Faculty of Economics in Osijek, where he was born in 1962. From 1995 to 1997, he served as Croatian Consul-General to Hungary. He…
Saturday, 22 June 2019
Presidential Candidate Milanović Makes an Appearance in Brezovica
ZAGREB, June 22, 2019 - Zoran Milanović, former prime minister and leader of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the party's candidate for the next President of the Republic, told reporters in Brezovica on Saturday that he had arrived to attend the celebration of Anti-Fascist Struggle Day and to be with his friends and people who cared about anti-fascism. "I'm here for Anti-Fascist Struggle Day, the only holiday that mentions struggle. I'm here for the tenth time and am pleased. These were our boys and girls in 1941, as were those in 1991. It's quite connected," Milanović said. "I think…
Saturday, 22 June 2019
Anti-Fascist Struggle Day Commemorated in Brezovica near Sisak
ZAGREB, June 22, 2019 - A ceremony was held in the Brezovica Forest Memorial Park near Sisak, about 60 kilometres southeast of Zagreb, on Saturday to commemorate Anti-Fascist Struggle Day. The ceremony, organised by national, regional and local anti-fascist organisations, started with the playing of the Croatian and European anthems and a minute of silence was observed for those killed in World War II. "Had it not been for the anti-fascist struggle, we would have had nothing to defend, and in the (1991-1995) Homeland War we successfully defended the Republic of Croatia," said the head of the Alliance of Anti-Fascist…
Saturday, 22 June 2019
Plenković Issues Message on the Occasion of Anti-Fascist-Struggle Day
ZAGREB, June 22, 2019 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on Friday issued a message on the occasion of Anti-Fascist Struggle Day saying that Croatian anti-fascists had made their contribution to the victory over Nazism and Fascism in World War II, which laid the ground for today's democratic and united Europe. On the occasion of June 22, we recall the day when in 1941 the first antifascist unit was formed in the Brezovica forest near Sisak in the then occupied Europe. Numerous Croatian antifascists, whom we remember today, made their contribution to the victory over Nazism and Fascism in World War…
