Politics

ZAGREB, 21 April 2022 - President Zoran Milanović said on Thursday he was honored to be boycotted by such people as cabinet ministers after Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said his cabinet would sever all communication with the president for the rest of his term, except in writing, due to a stream of invective from him. "Unfortunately, it so happened that I had to call them a gang, which they are because they have been sentenced for it," Milanović said during a visit to the Klovićevi Dvori Gallery in Zagreb. Commenting on Plenković's statement that Milanović had done damage to Croatia's foreign policy, the president…

ZAGREB, 21 April 2022 - The government will provide financial assistance to beekeepers in Međimurje after the mass death of bees, Agriculture Minister Marija Vučković said on Thursday after a government session. She recalled that the government had helped local beekeepers after the scourge of bees in 2020 when about 40 honey farmers were given 1,300 bee colonies and the aid was worth HRK 1 million. Vučković said that now the authorities were waiting for the findings of a veterinary inspection to establish whether the mass death was caused by a contagious disease or if the bees were killed by the effects of the use of…

ZAGREB, 21 April 2022 - After a two-year break, the SSSH union federation will mark International Workers' Day on 1 May with a protest march and rally in Zagreb to warn about the need for pay rises, better protection of workers' rights, and collective bargaining. After two years when International Workers' Day could not be observed due to COVID, the conditions now exist for doing it in a safe and appropriate way, with a protest, Dijana Šobota of the SSSH told the press on Thursday. €750 minimum wage goal by 2026 SSSH president Mladen Novosel said the unions' goal was for the average…

ZAGREB, 21 April 2022 - The head of the REGEA regional energy agency and President Zoran Milanović's adviser on energy and climate, Julije Domac, on Thursday sent an open letter to Minister Tomislav Ćorić with several proposals for mobilising citizens to invest in greater use of renewables. Domac writes to the Economy and Sustainable Development Minister that in the current circumstances, marred by the energy crisis, energy products' price hikes and efforts to reduce the import of fossil fuels, as well as against a backdrop of climate change to which Croatia is also supposed to respond, the intention of his letter is…

ZAGREB, 21 April 2022 - There is "serious potential to create instability" in the Western Balkans because it is "a testing ground for geostrategic rivalries," Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić Radman said on Thursday. Speaking to the press after talks with his Bulgarian counterpart Teodora Genchovska, he said they agreed that it was necessary to do everything so that the repercussions of the Russian aggression on Ukraine "don't spill over to the Western Balkans and Southeast Europe." "There is still, unfortunately, in a certain sense, serious potential to create instability given that the Western Balkans is, in a certain sense, a testing…

ZAGREB, 21 April 2022 - Two pensioners' associations on Thursday asked the government to raise pensions by 10% and change the pension indexation model, due to the rise of inflation and food prices, for seniors shortchanged in the pension reform. In an open letter to Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, they say that in February the average pension was 35.5% of the average pay, which puts Croatia at the bottom of the EU. Last year two in three pensions were below the poverty live at just over HRK 2,900. Since the rise of inflation and food prices poses an additional blow to…

ZAGREB, 21 April 2022 - Supreme Court president Radovan Dobronić plans to organise a consultation to discuss the existing court practise of extraditing Croatian nationals under the European Arrest Warrant (EAW), Jutarnji List daily said on Thursday. He told the paper he planned to convene Supreme Court judges, State Attorney's Office (DORH) representatives and criminal law professors from Croatia's four law schools. Although the Supreme Court took a stand on the extradition and the Constitutional Court has not opposed it, our court practice of acting on the EAW, which was created in a hurry, cannot be considered indisputable, Dobronić said. If DORH…

ZAGREB, 21 April 2022- In the last 24 hours 1,301 coronavirus cases and eight related deaths have been registered in Croatia, the national COVID-19 crisis management team said on Thursday. There are 4,343 active cases, including 492 hospitalised patients, of whom 23 on ventilators, while 2,163 persons are self-isolating. To date, Croatia has registered 1,115,442 coronavirus cases, the death toll is 15,765, and 70.73% of the adult population has been vaccinated, including 68.65% fully.   For all you need to know about coronavirus specific to Croatia, make sure to bookmark our dedicated section and select your preferred language if it isn't English.

ZAGREB, 20 April 2022 - It is difficult to change the position of the international community on Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was tailored by the "Sarajevo narrative", especially since the previous (Croatian) governments did not work on that, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said in parliament. Presenting a report on the meetings of the European Council to the members of the parliament, Plenković in particular referred to the discussions on Bosnia and Herzegovina, stressing it was a success that a reference on BiH's constituent peoples was included in the Strategic Compass, at Croatia's insistence. "Those in charge of the foreign policy before…

ZAGREB, 20 April 2022 - State Secretary at the Finance Ministry Stjepan Čuraj said on Wednesday that citizens didn't have to be afraid of the bill which would enable DORH, customs and tax administrations and the police to have access to a registry that contains records of accounts held by business entities and citizens. "Citizens don't have to be afraid of access to their accounts," Čuraj (HNS) told the press in the parliament, adding that the court decided on that as before. This is, he said, about ensuring the implementation of the European directive, with complete application of personal data protection.…