ZAGREB, April 6, 2020 - Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandić said on Monday that he had never accused Zagreb residents of the March 22 earthquake but that citizens, the city and the state were responsible for the damage caused by the quake to their property as they had not invested in it.
Addressing a news conference, Bandić accused reporters of misquoting his statement that "citizens are to blame for the earthquake", saying that nobody was to blame for it but that the failure to invest in one's own property was to blame on both the state and the city as well as its residents.
Responding to a reporter's remark that his previous statement was "a slap in the face for Zagreb residents", Bandić asked the reporter why she was nervous, accusing her of interrupting him and noting that she could not be helped.
Asked why he had decided to hold daily news conferences only two weeks after the earthquake and a month a half since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Bandić said that "things had to be organised."
Bandić said that the city budget would be revised in two weeks' time.
"Today you will have a decision on provisional financing, with priorities. This is not only the city's problem but a national problem. Only together can we cope with it," said the mayor, adding that a law should be passed to regulate the process of reconstruction in Zagreb and that the most severe cases, people who cannot return to their homes, would have priority.
He said that everyone would pay for the reconstruction of their own property - the city for its own, the state for its own and the city and state together for citizens' property that is treated as a priority.
Bandić said that the city would make apartments it owns available to everyone left without a roof over their heads and that in the autumn the construction of 300 flats would begin in the neighbourhood of Podbrežje.
More Zagreb news can be found in the Lifestyle section.
