Politics

ZAGREB, 24 Feb 2022 - In the last 24 hours, 2,559 new coronavirus cases and 22 COVID-related deaths have been recorded in Croatia, the national coronavirus response team reported on Thursday. The number of active cases currently stands at 20,578. Among them are 1,504 infected people being treated in hospitals, including 109 who are on ventilators, while 11,781 persons are self-isolating. Since 25 February 2020, when the first case was confirmed in Croatia, 1,049,667 people have been registered as having been infected with the new SARS-CoV-2 virus, of whom 14,964 have died and 1,014,125 have recovered, including 3,405 in the…

ZAGREB, 24 Feb 2022 - Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković has strongly condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine, calling on Moscow to stop the military attack immediately. "We strongly condemn Russia's aggression and invasion of Ukraine. This unprovoked attack is a gross violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and international law," Plenković wrote on his Twitter account on Thursday morning. "This is exclusively the responsibility of Russia, which we call upon to immediately stop this military attack." "We express our solidarity with Ukraine and the Ukrainian people," the Croatian prime minister said. For more, check out our politics section.

February the 24th, 2022 - Croatian cyber-soldiers are being used to help Ukraine out in its hour of need as Russia launches its invasion of that Eastern European country. As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Croatian cyber-soldiers who are being sent to the aid of Ukraine during these tremendously difficult times are part of the CRRT, a team for rapid action in cyberspace, which was established by Lithuania, Estonia, Croatia, the Netherlands, Poland and Romania as one of the European Union's ultra modern and enhanced defense cooperation projects. The Republic of Croatia is among a group of six European Union (EU) member states…

February the 24th, 2022 - PM Plenkovic has had his hands full with the most recent scandal involving former Minister Darko Horvat, but he's managed to avoid any snap elections. As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Brnic writes, the development of events and the latest reshuffles on the Croatian political scene and the increasingly serious military security crisis in which the moves of Russian President Vladimir Putin are of growing concern have been being followed with trepidation recently. PM Plenkovic wanted to see Croatian People's Party (HNS) leader Stjepan Curaj placed in the position of Minister of Physical Planning, Construction and State Property…

ZAGREB, 23 Feb 2022 - It is still possible to delay elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina, due in October, if that would help resolve the problem of electoral law reform, the leader of the predominantly Bosniak Democratic Action Party (SDA), Bakir Izetbegović, said on Wednesday. Izetbegović was speaking to the press in Sarajevo after talks between the Croat and Bosniak parties on the reform of electoral law, which were to have been held in Mostar on Tuesday, had been cancelled without explanation. Izetbegović said he had not been invited to that meeting at all, but added that that did not…

ZAGREB, 23 Feb 2022 - Opposition parties in the Croatian parliament on Wednesday demanded an early election, saying that the appointment of a new construction minister would not change anything, and corruption would continue to thrive in the country. "The fact that Minister Horvat is no longer in this post and that an extension of the deadline has been granted for the use of funding from the EU Solidarity Fund doesn't change anything. People are still living in container homes and do not know for how long," said Anka Mrak Taritaš of the Centre/GLAS group. "Everything has changed in the…

ZAGREB, 23 Feb 2022 - Two professional construction associations on Wednesday called on Prime Minister Andrej Plenković to appoint an expert in construction and in management of civil engineering projects as the new minister of physical planning, construction and state assets. The Croatian Chamber of Civil Engineers and Croatian Alliance of Civil Engineers sent a letter to the prime minister appealing for candidates to be carefully considered, particularly with regard to  the post-quake reconstruction as the most challenging task construction-wise in recent Croatian history. That task requires expertise and sound knowledge of civil engineering, and it is of utter importance that the nominee has years…

ZAGREB, 23 Feb 2022 - The Croatian-Ukrainian Friendship Society has called on the Croatian Parliament to follow the example of other parliaments and recognise the Holodomor, the great famine of the early 1930s when over seven million people were starved to death, as an act of genocide against the Ukrainian people. This crime, committed on the basis of Soviet laws, has all elements of genocide, says the proposal adopted by the association's assembly on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the Holodomor. The association said in a statement, signed by its president Đuro Vidmarović, that the Holodomor was organised…

ZAGREB, 23 Feb 2022 - The Office for Suppression of Corruption and Organised Crime (USKOK) on Wednesday issued an indictment against former Knin mayor and state secretary Josipa Rimac of the HDZ party and another 26 suspects, including several former office-holders, on corruption and abuse of office charges. The USKOK investigated this case after a scandal dubbed "wind parks" broke out, but the indictment, which was lodged with Zagreb County Court today, does not refer to the circumstances surrounding the wind parks case, but to alleged irregularities in the allocation of state aid to farmers and grants to businesses, unfair employment and…

ZAGREB, 23 Feb 2022 - Several MPs responded heatedly on Wednesday to SDSS leader Milorad Pupovac's accusations about their intention to incite hatred, while he was speaking in defence of Deputy Prime Minister and party colleague, Boris Milošević, who is under investigation for abuse of power. "There are some people who allegedly advocate justice and legality yet they are doing that in such a way that they incite and instigate hatred and with that, they destroy the very notion of justice and legality while inciting hatred easily leads to inciting violence," said Pupovac of the Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) and added, "those…