Politics

ZAGREB, 27 June, 2021 - State Judicial Council President Darko Milković has scheduled a new meeting of the State Judicial Council for Wednesday to decide on a third public call for the appointment of a new Supreme Court President. "The State Judicial Council is due to issue a third public call and we hope that it will be third time lucky. All interested parties will be able to apply. We have a meeting scheduled for 30 June when we will decide on the new public call. Given that a deadline of 30 days had been set for the two previous calls, I…

ZAGREB, 26 June 2021 - Interior Minister Davor Božinović said in Glina on Saturday that the HDZ, notably under Andrej Plenković's leadership, was winning despite all criticisms, not just from President Zoran Milanović, because citizens saw that the HDZ solved problems. Responding to questions from the press, Božinović denied that there would be a constitutional crisis after parliament yesterday rejected Milanović's candidate for the Supreme Court president, Zlata Đurđević, saying that a third call for applications would probably be advertised. Asked to comment on Milanović's claim following the rejection of Đurđević that the HDZ "is destroying" the state and the…

ZAGREB, 26 June 2021 - The representative of the Hungarian minority in the Croatian Parliament, Robert Jankovics, was re-elected president of the Democratic Union of Hungarians of Croatia (DZMH), the umbrella organisation of the Hungarian minority in Croatia, at an election convention in the eastern town of Kopačevo on Saturday. "To earn the confidence of the delegates of about 50 associations of the Hungarian minority in Croatia for a new four-year term as the head of the DZMH is an extraordinary responsibility for me and I hope that, together with my closes associates, I will be able to respond to the…

ZAGREB, 26 June 2021 - Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković attended a ceremony marking the 30th anniversary of Slovenia's independence in Ljubljana on Friday, and in his speech he pointed out the ties between the two nations in history and at the time of their independence from Yugoslavia 30 years ago. "Croatia and Slovenia are two friendly countries, and Croats and Slovenes are two friendly peoples. What divides us is a trifle compared to what binds us together," Plenković said, congratulating Slovenia on the 30 years of independence. He said that on the same day in 1991 the parliaments of…

June 25th, 2021 - Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković greeted Croatian citizens in the country and abroad on Independence Day, calling on lawmakers to turn to topics of the future and challenges of the modern era.  "By marking Independence Day, we remember 25 June 1991 when the Croatian Parliament adopted two historic decisions: the Constitutional decision on Croatia's sovereignty and independence, and the Declaration of Croatia's sovereignty and independence. After that, all foreign representatives accredited in Zagreb were asked to recognize the Croatian state. These decisions represented the constitutional basis for independence on which the sovereign Croatian state emerged," Jandroković recalled in his address…

June 25th, 2021 -  MPs on Friday rejected President Zoran Milanović's recommendation that Zlata Đurđević is appointed Supreme Court president by 81 votes against, 37 for, and five abstentions. Before the vote, Marijan Pavliček (Sovereignists) reiterated that Đurđević was unacceptable because she was "ideologically colored, an exponent of liberal-left politics and a toy in President Zoran Milanović's hands." "There is no ideology about her. On the contrary, she is a professional who bothers all those who don't want change," said Krešo Beljak (People's Party). Peđa Grbin (Social Democrats) said there were two groups, one that felt that everything in Croatia's judiciary was all…

June 25th, 2021 - Croatia expects to join the eurozone in early 2023 and plans to meet all the requirements by then, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said in Brussels on Friday. He is attending a two-day EU summit which today will include a eurozone summit. "That's an opportunity for me to state once again our willingness to meet all the criteria and, after entering the Exchange Rate Mechanism last year, to meet the action plan and create the prerequisites for Croatia to become a member of the eurozone during 2023, hopefully at the beginning," Plenković told reporters. At the eurozone summit, he said, he will…

June 25th, 2021 -  The leading Bosniak party, SDA, and two members of the Bosnian Presidency, Šefik Džaferović and Željko Komšić, said on Thursday that Croatia and the concept of ethnic divisions were defeated in the EP with the rejection of an amendment on constituent peoples to a Bosnia and Herzegovina progress report. At a plenary on Thursday, the European Parliament adopted a report on BiH, rejecting amendments by Croatian MEPs on the rights of constituent peoples, which the European People's Party supported but not the Liberals, the Left, and the Greens. "The rejection of the amendment by the parliamentarians from Croatia and ultra-right…

June 25th, 2021 - The European Parliament on Thursday adopted a report by Croatian MEP Mislav Kolakušić, which underlines that it is necessary to oversee better the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality in the adoption of EU policies and to introduce the EP's right to legislative initiative. Presenting the "European Union regulatory fitness and subsidiarity and proportionality report on Better Law-Making covering the years 2017, 2018 and 2019," Kolakušić said the expansion of EU powers harmed the EU's democracy and functioning, and that it was necessary to protect better member states' possibility to make decisions and act without European institutions interfering whenever possible. 620 votes…

June 25th, 2021 - The European Parliament adopted a report by Croatian MEP Predrag Fred Matić on sexual and reproductive health and rejected an alternative motion for a resolution by the European People's Party (EPP). Matić's resolution, which sparked a media storm, a reaction from the Church, and a debate in the Croatian parliament, calls on member states to introduce comprehensive sex education for young people, to improve access to contraception, and to ensure better access to menstrual hygiene products by abolishing taxes. It calls on member states to ensure safe and legal abortion and stresses that "a total ban on abortion…