Mijo Crnoja gets a successor.
Three weeks after the resignation of Mijo Crnoja, HDZ has decided to propose its secretary general Milijan Brkić as the new veterans affairs minister. HDZ President and First Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Karamarko announced the decision yesterday. "We have decided today that we will nominate Milijan Brkić as veterans minister", said Karamarko. He added that he was guilty why it took so long for the decision to be made. "I am to blame that it took us three weeks to propose a new minister, because I had a lot of conversations, interviews and consultations, but I think we have made our decision", said Karamarko, reports Index.hr and Večernji List on February 23, 2016.
He added that there were no problems with veterans. "We will have a meeting with them when they ask for it. The prime minister is in London, and when he comes back, we will discuss it. There are no problems, especially since we have solved the issue of veterans minister", said Karamarko.
HDZ secretary general Milijan Brkić said he was "honoured with the nomination". "When and if I am confirmed in parliament, I will then comment on all the activities and the first steps that I will do as the veterans minister", said Brkić.
MOST said that they would support Brkić because he is a veteran himself and knows the problems of this part of population. However, if claims that he plagiarized his final university thesis are proven to be true, they will expect him to resign. "We will keep the standards set with his predecessor, Mijo Crnoja", said a source from MOST.
In 2012, two senior lecturers were suspended at the Police Academy due to the suspicion that they allowed plagiarism to some of their students, and one of them was Milijan Brkić. Afterwards, the Policy Academy annulled the final thesis supposedly written by Brkić due to plagiarism. However, in July 2015, the Zagreb Administrative Court annulled the decision of the Academy due to a procedural error, because the decision on behalf of the Police Academy was made by the Dean, and not by the Expert Council which was supposed to do it. Interestingly, in her verdict the judge confirmed that 70 percent of Brkić's thesis was plagiarized.
After MOST refused the appointment of Josipa Rimac as deputy minister of administration affairs, obviously they did not want to refuse a candidacy of another high-ranking HDZ official in order to preserve the stability of the government coalition.
The selection of Milijan Brkić as the new minister received positive reactions from veterans' associations. "We welcome the choice of Milijan Brkić as the veterans minister, since he is a strong political leader", said Josip Klemm, president of the Special Police Association and one of the leaders of veterans protests.
Peđa Grbin (SDP) said that the way the new government is functioning was unconstitutional. "According to the Constitution, it is the prime minister who proposes ministers, who interviews candidates and who informs the public about his decision. But, not when we have Karamarko. In this government, it is clear who is the real boss, who is pulling the strings, who decides and who just travels the world, shaking hands and smiling. Orešković is a puppet, Karamarko is a puppeteer, and Petrov is an observer."
Former prime minister and HDZ president Jadranka Kosor gave her comment via Twitter: "And so, when he returns from abroad, the prime minister will find out that they have chosen the minister. They will not tell him that it was actually his job to do that", wrote Kosor.
