Dalija Orešković has been making some rather bold statements of late, first in regard to HDZ and Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, and now towards Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 3rd of November, 2018, her blunt and to the point comments towards the Croatian president have continued.

"The very fact that she tries to suit the feelings and the sentiments of the population clearly shows where her empathy lies, it's often populist when it comes to showing a warm face. It's a warm face, it's just a mask," stated Dalija Orešković rather bluntly.

Orešković was a guest of N1 television where she talked about her political plans, as well as about President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, towards whom she was extremely critical once again.

She first commented on her decision to not go to Marrakech, Morocco, where the measures for legal migration are being adopted.

"I'm not that captured [by it], for me, this is yet another example of the uncovering of the faces of the president,'' sye stated.

She also commented on Kolinda's attack on the Croatian Government, referring to an interview with President Grabar-Kitarović in which criticised the government for the lack of reforms.

She placed emphasis on the fact that the president, though lacking the power, does have moral authority.

"The president has the strongest voice in the country and that can create a certain atmosphere. The atmosphere created by Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović in recent years is colouring the country in black," Orešković openly said.

Orešković attributes the fact that Grabar-Kitarović continues to do so well in the polls to very well-designed political marketing.

"Smile, share some pictures, get some good marketing which brings you closer to the everyday lives and the feelings of citizens, behind that lies no serious work, or what a president should be doing" concluded Orešković in a rather cutting statement.

Make sure to keep up to date with our politics page for more information on the Croatian political scene, both at the national and at the European level.

In case you didn't know, Martina Dalic, the former deputy prime minister who spent a long time at Andrej Plenkovic's side, left her position earlier this year amid not only the Hotmail affair, in which she was sending highly sensitive emails via no less than Hotmail, but amid growing suspicion surrounding her in regard to the very messy Agrokor affair.

Now, despite the public's general opinion of her being less than sparkling and with all sorts of unsavoury suspicions and accusations about her involvement in Agrokor still flying around, left unanswered, Martina Dalic went ahead and published a book on Agrokor, causing raised eyebrows among many politicians, including MOST's leader Bozo Petrov, who was heavily involved in the Agrokor situation when it first came to light, especially given the fact that the crisis saw the former HDZ-MOST coalition collapse.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Tomislav Pili writes on the 30th of October, 2018, Finance Minister Zdravko Maric, who felt the very personal unpleasantness of the Agrokor crisis on his own skin, stated quite bluntly that he didn't have any desire to comment on whether or not Martina Dalic should return to the government at all.

Marić used to work for Agrokor before taking up his position within the Croatian Government, this caused a lot of suspicion around him, too, as many across the political spectrum and in the general public failed to believe that he had no knowledge of the plethora of underhand deals and the threatening collapse of the company that eventually raised its ugly head in the spring of 2017. Despite the controversy, Maric stuck to his guns and held onto his position, with the situation eventually blowing over. Despite that, it doesn't come as much of a surprise that he'd prefer to avoid discussing Martina Dalic or her new book.

"I've got a good relationship with all the people I've worked with and am working with now, and if we have some disagreement, then we find a common language," the finance minister said briefly.

''I haven't read Martina Dalic's book and I don't know if I'll manage to,'' Maric added at the margins of Poslovni Dnevnik's conference. In response to a journalist's question as to whether everything worked well in regard to Agrokor's extraordinary administration, and why Martina Dalic had to leave, Maric expressed his lack of desire to comment on whether or not she should return to the government.

As for the dangers the Uljanik shipyard situation represents towards public debt, Maric said Uljanik's influence will of course have an effect on the overall fiscal policy outcome for this year.

"The only good thing about it is that it will have a one-off effect. From our side, we intend to solve [the situation] as soon as possible so as to avoid any further consequences. Nevertheless, by the end of the year, according to our projections and expectations, public debt will continue to decline,'' Maric emphasised.

"With regard to taking further steps, we can't influence the worsening global environment that much, but do we have certain mechanisms in our hands. I, as finance minister, am responsible for implementing fiscal policy. All we propose is a responsible, rational fiscal policy that suits all of the challenges we're facing. We're putting emphasis on a more stable public debt, but the basic idea of us all should be ​​economic growth, which will lead to stronger employment growth,'' Maric noted.

Journalists present at the conference in were also very interested in the disappearance of the so-called "mantra" about budget savings which has been being talking about a lot over recent years.

"I wouldn't say that is stopped. If you look at the structure of the expenditure side of the budget, the biggest item is the retirement expenditure. It's true that the issue of expenditure has been challenged more than once and we must not give up on that. We reduced interest costs by over two billion kuna, but we're still paying too much,'' Maric said.

Regarding retirement, the question of whether or not retirement benefits in the new Law on Croatian Defenders represent a budgetary burden arose, to which Maric responded that his ministry had looked into potential financial implications during the process of the adoption of the naw Law on Croatian Defenders.

"The Law on Croatian Defenders is fiscally viable and isn't an additional burden for the budget," Maric concluded.

Want to find out more about what exactly happened within Agrokor and learn more about Martina Dalic's role within it all? Click here and follow the news on Dalić, the Hotmail affair, the writing of Lex Agrokor, and more.

Click here for the original article by Tomislav Pili for Poslovni Dnevnik

ZAGREB, October 29, 2018 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Monday that all parliamentary parties that made up ruling majority, supported him as the prime minister, and the government's agenda and activities.

Plenković was responding to reporters who asked him whether he had convinced his partners to remain in the government should a reshuffle occur. I haven't noticed that there were any outstanding issues, he said. We conduct regular meetings with partners and so far I haven't heard of any problems, Plenković said and added that all partners were important.

Earlier in the day, some parties announced they would leave the ruling coalition if the prime minister were to admit Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandić's representatives into the cabinet.

He said that he would attend the presentation of former economy minister Martina Dalić's book because he was interested in her view of an important process. He underscored that he wasn't interested in anything MOST party leader Božo Petrov had to say including his opinion of Martina Dalić's book.

He said that the process in the Petrokemija artificial fertiliser plant has been going on for several months and that since coming into office, his government has been working on Petrokemija's recapitalisation. He underscored that that was one of the inherited topics in Croatia's economic transition that were put on this government's agenda in one lot. Today's decisions are a prerequisite for the process of recapitalisation to be rounded off in two or three days and for a new phase to be launched in Petrokemija based on a new ownership structure, Plenković said.

With reference to the Sisak refinery, he said that the government was looking for a comprehensive solution together with the majority partners in INA at the moment and that it be sustainable, the prime minister said.

Interested in news about Croatia politics? Click here.

ZAGREB, October 27, 2018 - The date of the next National Security Council session, which will include discussion on the Croatian border, will be defined next week with President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković told the national broadcaster HTV on Friday evening.

Asked if he knew what the president had decided regarding being the candidate of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) in the election run for another term as head of state, given that the party asked Grabar-Kitarović to state her intentions by autumn, Plenković briefly said "yes", without revealing what the president had decided. "It is up to her to say that. When the time comes, she will inform the public about her decision," the prime minister said.

"We did not yet agree on the date of the session of the National Security Council and we will discuss that next week, once we return to Zagreb. After that, a trip to China is scheduled so the National Security Council will be convened either next week or in 15 days," Plenković said.

President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović said on Thursday there were already plenty of topics for discussion by the National Security Council and that she was "constantly proposing" that the Council convened. Speaking to reporters, she said the Council must convene sooner or later. "Four times a year, as agreed. And if the Council convenes, don't think there is a state of emergency in the country."

Asked about the migrant situation at the Maljevac border crossing, Plenković said Croatia was strengthening its capacities to protect the border and it respected the agreement with the European Union.

The migrant influx, following a large migrant wave in 2015/2016. is down 98%, Plenković said adding that together with its EU partners, Croatia has strengthened the protection of the EU external border. He also said that Croatian Interior Minister Davor Božinović was constantly in contact with his Bosnia and Herzegovina counterpart and the relevant EU commissioner regarding the situation at the Maljevac border crossing.

The Maljevac border crossing between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia remained closed on Thursday morning after a large group of migrants attempted to cross the border illegally on Wednesday, and the Croatian police spent the night on alert, but did not need to intervene.

On Thursday morning, the migrants were 150 metres away from the borderline and were under the control of Bosnian police.

For the latest on politics in Croatia, follow the TCN Politics page.

ZAGREB, October 25, 2018 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said in a lecture at Split's School of Law on Wednesday that the migrant crisis had been affecting the EU's political architecture in recent years, impacting also elections results, and that Croatia was located on a key migration route that could change the whole situation.

ZAGREB, October 24, 2018 - Prime Minister and HDZ party leader Andrej Plenković said on Tuesday that whoever was plotting against him would not succeed and that the "text message" scandal should be investigated fully.

ZAGREB, October 19, 2018 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Friday, in a comment on the first two years of his government's term, that his main goal over the past two years had been to maintain political stability, which he said did not mean keeping the status quo, and that in the next two years he wanted to see the atmosphere in society improve, with more tolerance, inclusiveness and dialogue.

ZAGREB, October 18, 2018 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Wednesday that he would use the EU summit in Brussels as an opportunity to talk to European officials about the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) following the general election, given the status of the Croat people in that country.

ZAGREB, October 17, 2018 - Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said in Paris on Tuesday that he was very pleased with the results of his meeting with his host, French President Emmanuel Macron.

ZAGREB, October 16, 2018 - Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Monday that he and his host Emmanuel Macron would met on Tuesday for the talks on the strengthening of bilateral relations on the political and economic fronts.