ZAGREB, 4 Feb 2022 - President Zoran Milanović confirmed on Friday having received contracts on the purchase of the Rafale fighter jets but he would not comment on them, saying the documents were confidential.
"I do not have any comment except for the fact that an extra €200 million will be deducted from the Defence Ministry budget," he said.
Asked what else the army needed, Milanović said that the issue of army equipment procurement was far from having been finished.
"The Bradleys purchase had to be pushed for. I could not believe that someone could think, like an amateur, that the issue no longer exists," Milanović said, adding that the US-made fighting vehicles remained to be paid for.
Speaking of the first two US-made Black Hawk helicopters that on Thursday arrived in Zagreb, the president warned that hangars had not been built for them and that Defence Minister Mario Banožić had failed to publish a tender for the job.
He described Banožić as a "lazy incompetent", ad accused him of bullying the Armed Forces Chief-of-Staff, and now acting the same way as he had when he had served as the State Assets Minister.
Milanović on comments by HDZ political secretary
Commenting on recent accusations levelled against him by ruling HDZ party political secretary Ante Sanader, Milanović said Sanader had found his son a job at the Split-Dalmatia County Fire Association, of which Sanader is president, noting ironically that he would advise his son to join the HDZ in order to find a job.
"Sanader hired his son, where else but in his own firm, which is a state firm and has a budget that is secured by the state run by the HDZ," Milanović told reporters in a comment on Sanader having recently called him out over the JANAF affair, his job as a consultant, corruption and a favourable housing loan.
Dismissing the accusations, Milanović also said that Sanader's wife "found a bunch of euro banknotes in a parking lot and stashed it into her boot, returning it only after being contacted by the police."
