ZAGREB, 6 January, 2021 - Homeland Movement president Miroslav Skoro said on Wednesday the system of civil protection and commodity stockpiles had failed in managing the disaster in Sisak-Moslavina County after last week's earthquake because the people in question were not qualified but party members "doing their job badly."
Speaking to the press while touring the opposition party's donation warehouse in Odra Sisacka, the deputy parliament speaker said the state should have replenished the commodity stockpiles because all available containers had been given to healthcare because of the COVID-19 crisis and to accommodate the people of Zagreb after the March earthquake.
Skoro visited the people affected by the tremor in the Banovina region, saying his party had done its utmost to help them.
He said the volunteers and citizens who came to help of their own accord had shown their big heart once again and that they could act faster and better than any institution.
He said it took the government six days to declare a state of disaster, "while football supporters, people of good heart who were here the next morning were, unfortunately, proclaimed as those disrupting some system and being a nuisance."
Skoro went on to say that Stjepo Bartulica would be the Homeland Movement's new whip.
He regretted that Karolina Vidovic Kristo and Milan Vrkljan left the party's parliamentary group, which now has ten deputies. "We have the impression it was all staged but it's their decision and we won't cry after anyone," he said, adding that he was convinced Vidovic Kristo and Vrkljan would trade with their seats.
Asked if they were forced out of the party as they claimed, Skoro said Vrkljan had been highly positioned in the party, its whip and a man he fully trusted. As for Vidovic Kristo, he said she had been an independent in the party's caucus.
He said there was no rift within the Homeland Movement.
The party's organisation secretary Darijo Zepina said the Homeland Movement had collected over 800 tonnes of food and necessities for the quake victims, adding that over 100 of its volunteers were visiting those in need every day and that it expected 30 trucks with relief from Germany from people who, he said, insisted that it be distributed by the Homeland Movement.
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