Another twist in the never-ending saga.
HDZ secretary general Milijan Brkić announced this evening that he had withdrawn his name as a candidate for Veterans Minister. He informed the public about his decision on Facebook, reports Index.hr on March 13, 2016.
"I thank you for the support you gave me in the last 20 days since HDZ and its president Tomislav Karamarko nominated me as a candidate to be the Veterans Affairs Minister. I am proud that I was suggested as the candidate, particularly since I have received great support from my fellow soldiers and the general public. Of course, in politics, there are those who would like different solutions. The number of candidates has increased to about ten, and the unresolved situation has been used for speculations and defamation of the Patriotic Coalition, HDZ, Croatian veterans and me personally.
There is no post which would be more important than my fellow soldiers, their families, our Croatia. I have proven that many times during my life. The post of the Veterans Affairs Minister must not be a "field" for relentless political bickering and the future minister (whoever he or she is) should not be held hostage by the irresponsible part of the politics and the media. My first condition for the acceptance of this honourable duty was a fair, open and honest relationship and consensus among the ruling majority, which on this occasion has not been achieved.
In order to end this agonizing situation, I would like to announce that at this moment I cannot accept this honourable duty.
In addition, I would like to emphasize that I am very pleasantly surprised by the sensibility that was shown with regards to the veterans' issues by Prime Minister Tihomir Orešković. I am sure that, whoever the new minister is, they will have his full support, for which I am sincerely grateful.
Finally, today we can confirm the great words of the first Croatian President Franjo Tuđman, who said that we have our Croatia and that we know how to preserve it, because 'The future belongs to us'", said Brkić in his Facebook post.
