ZAGREB, 27 March 2021 - The head of the task force dealing with the aftermath of last year's earthquake, Tomo Medved, in Glina, on Saturday formally handed over 39 housing and several service containers to Mayor Stjepan Kostanjević for use by residents left homeless after a 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck central Croatia on 29 December.  

The 15th housing container settlement was set up in Sisak-Moslavina County after the earthquake, and it cost  HRK 3.7 million.

Medved expressed hope that living in these containers would be much better than in makeshift accommodation. He announced an even larger settlement in Sisak and four smaller ones, two in Mošćenica and two in Sisak. The construction of a prefab housing estate in Majur is nearing completion. 

In the reconstruction process, Medved announced that repair works on houses with damaged chimneys would intensify as of early May. He said that 25,000 houses in the county had suffered minor damage, such as damage to chimneys and gable walls.

Medved said that it was important that people had safe accommodation and support in food, electricity, and other essential services while waiting for their homes to be repaired, which he said would take time.

Thirty-one families, or 72 people, will be living in the housing container settlement in Glina, and the first two families have moved in today, Mayor Kostanjević said. He added that 55 residents of Glina were staying in Topusko, and some would return to Glina to live in the containers.

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ZAGREB, 31 January, 2021 - The Croatian community in New Zealand has joined in aid raising campaigns for the Croatian areas affected by the 29 December devastating earthquake.

Thus, the Croatian Cultural Society in Auckland has opened a bank account for pecuniary donations for families in Petrinja, Glina and Sisak.

The Croatian Catholic Mission in Auckland already paid 5,000 dollars to a family in the village of Sibić.

The Croatian Cultural Society president Goran Katich said that the society would collect the donations throughout this year and would also organise humanitarian concerts and other events to raise relief for the quake victims.

According to the data provided by the the New Zealand Foreign Affairs Ministry and Trade, there are more than 100,000 Croats and their descendants in that country.

"Croatian immigrants began arriving in New Zealand from the 1850s and today there are more than 100,000 New Zealanders of Croatian heritage. There are also more than 2,500 Croatian nationals living here," the ministry said on its website.

AGREB, 30 January, 2021 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Saturday that by breaking the quorum in the parliament on Friday, which was why amendments to the law on post-earthquake reconstruction were not voted in, the Opposition had "impudently turned its back" on earthquake victims in the Banovina region.

"Not only did they not enable the adoption of the law on post-earthquake reconstruction, they also prevented the declaration of the Exclusive Economic Zone in the Adriatic and the adoption of the National Development Strategy, which reveals an unbelievable degree of political destructiveness and lack of political culture," the PM said after a meeting of the task force dealing with the aftermath of the 29 December earthquake in Sisak-Moslavina County, held in Petrinja.

Noting that his HDZ party would never do such a thing, Plenković stressed that amending the Act on the Post-Earthquake Reconstruction of the City of Zagreb and Zagreb and Krapina-Zagorje Counties to make it apply also to Sisak-Moslavina County would simplify procedures and enable the state to launch reconstruction mechanisms.

"The Opposition's quorum-breaking is an immoral act in the context of the fact that an MP of the ruling majority is in hospital," Plenković said in reference to HDZ MP Miroslav Tuđman, who has been hospitalised for COVID-19 and whose absence the HDZ believes the Opposition took advantage of.

Burden of responsibility lies with Opposition

Plenković went on to say that the Opposition's motion regarding the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK) was incomplete, demagogical and populist, describing the Bridge party, which tabled it, as destructive populists and proponents of anti-European and anti-minority policies.

Asked when the new law on post-earthquake reconstruction would be adopted, he referred reporters to opposition leaders, telling them "to ask Mr Grbin, Mr Petrov and Mr Škoro if they plan to help Banovina."

He repeated that the parliamentary majority was strong and stable regardless of the fact that its members did not see eye to eye on some topics.

The HGK needs to be reformed but you cannot just bring down an institution that has existed for more than 160 years, he said.

Amendments to the Act on the Post-Earthquake Reconstruction of the City of Zagreb and Zagreb and Krapina-Zagorje Counties were among the motions that were to have been put to the vote in parliament on Friday.

After Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković moved from the agenda Bridge's motion to abolish the mandatory membership fee in the HGK, the Opposition walked out of the parliament, breaking the quorum. Since the HDZ-led majority was one vote short of the 76 MPs necessary to take a vote, the vote on amendments to the post-earthquake reconstruction law was postponed as well.

The Opposition has dismissed the accusations from the ruling HDZ party, accusing the ruling majority of tyranny and disregard for earthquake victims, with Social Democrat leader Peđa Grbin describing the HDZ's accusations against the Opposition with regard to HDZ MP Tuđman as shameless.

Hospitality sector, gym owners should show little more patience

Plenković today also called on cafe and restaurant owners, who have announced protests against the national COVID-19 response team's decision to keep current restrictions in force and only slightly relax some, to show a little more patience, stressing that nobody wanted to restrict business activity but that a large-scale relaxation of the restrictions would not be wise at the moment.

The restrictions will be reviewed on February 15 and if the situation then is much better than it is now and if we find room for additional relaxation, we will do it, he said.

Plenković was in Petrinja to attend the start of work on demolishing buildings that have been found unfit for use following the 6.2 magnitude earthquake in Sisak-Moslavina County last month.

He said that more than 1,025 mobile housing units had been installed in the area and that work would also be stepped up on completing the motorway section running from Lekenik to Sisak for the sake of future revitalisation and economic activity in the region of Banovina.

ZAGREB, 29 January, 2021 - The Catholic churches in the Subotica diocese in the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina have raised about €40,000 in aid for earthquake-devastated areas of central Croatia, and another €11,000 has been raised through the Croatian National Council.

The Bishop of Subotica, Slavko Večerin, said in his message to the faithful that a sum of €40,108 would be presented to the Sisak Diocesan Caritas. The fund-raising campaign began on 10 January.

The Croatian National Council in Serbia, acting in cooperation with the Democratic Alliance of Croats in Vojvodina (DSHV), has raised about  €11,000 since 30 December and will continue the fund-raising campaign.

A magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck the Banovina region of central Croatia on 29 December 2020, killing seven people and causing extensive damage to property.