ZAGREB, November 8, 2018 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Thursday that his Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party would not curry favour with those on the far right end of the political spectrum and that there was no price he would not pay to accomplish that.

"Everything I have been doing since assuming leadership of the HDZ has been to strongly anchor the HDZ as a centre-right party, not a party at the end of the political spectrum, but a party projecting stability, seriousness and trust," Plenković told Croatian reporters covering his visit to Helsinki, where he attended a European People's Party congress at which Manfred Webber was elected lead candidate for next year’s EU elections. He added that recent opinion polls showed that it was necessary to keep on that track.

He said the populist signals evident in elections in several European countries were something one should deal with. "I think we, as the most responsible party in Croatia, are dealing with that very well and will continue to do so. We won't curry favour with those at the far right end of the political spectrum who, with their rhetoric, don't contribute to the progress of Croatian society but pull it backwards. I will vehemently fight against that and there's no price we won't pay for that."

Asked if this message was related to the president's fall of six percentage points in opinion polls and developments concerning the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, Plenković said he had not seen all the details of the polls but noted that the HDZ had gone up one percent and that he was glad the HDZ had been rising in all key opinion polls in recent months.

He reiterated that the Global Compact was a global response to the migration issue, and said its drafting began with a UN declaration in 2016, before he became prime minister, at a General Assembly session attended by President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović. She has recently said that she will not attend a Global Compact conference in Marrakesh next month.

Plenković said it was a solid document with some contentious formulations for some countries. "We have to demystify this discussion that started in Croatia's public sphere. It's a legally non-binding document, not a treaty, a catalogue of measures, and I see no reason why it should cause so many disputes and hysteria generated always by the same parties and actors," he said, adding that a discussion would be held and a decision made on who would go to Marrakesh instead of the president.

He said there was no disagreement on this matter in the government and that the president was the one who changed her mind and decided not to attend the conference.

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ZAGREB, November 6, 2018 - Croatia has a favourable geographical position in the middle of Europe and as a member of the European Union it is part of the large European market with over 500 million people which represents a great opportunity for Chinese companies interested in cooperation, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said in Shanghai on Tuesday, at the Croatia-China business forum which brought together representatives of about 30 Croatian and more than 130 Chinese companies.

With his participation in the business forum, the Croatian prime minister wrapped up his five-day visit to the world's second largest economy. During his stay in China, he held talks with top Chinese officials – President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang – and held a number of working meetings with Chinese business people.

Opening the business forum, Plenković invited Chinese companies to invest in Croatia, notably in railway infrastructure and naval ports, saying that Croatia wanted to increase its exports to China. "We want to attract new investment and I believe that our meetings will help further development of cooperation between Croatia and China. This forum shows that Croatian companies are increasingly interested in the Chinese market. Let's hope your talks today will result in numerous deals," Plenković said.

He underscored the advantages of Croatia's favourable geographical position, adding that Croatia is part of the market with 500 million people. Plenković stressed Croatia was entirely integrated in transport plans on the European level and focused on further investment in the railway sector.

He recalled that the overall trade between the two countries last year amount to 900 million dollars of which only 125 million dollars was Croatia's exports to China. "Our goal is to have a balanced trade...We want to increase Croatia's exports to China, which is why we are here, to help Croatia's exporters," Plenković said.

He also underscored the importance of cooperation with China in the China +16 initiative. The 16+1 format is an initiative launched by China aimed at intensifying and expanding cooperation with 11 EU Member States and 5 Balkan countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia) in the fields of investments, transport, finance, science, education, and culture. In the framework of the initiative, China has defined three potential priority areas for economic cooperation: infrastructure, high technologies, and green technologies.

"It is a great honour for us to host the China+1 summit in spring 2019 in Dubrovnik," Plenković said. He also underlined the importance of the decision, adopted by the Hrvatske Ceste road operator, to select the China Road and Bridge Corporation to build the Pelješac Bridge in Croatia, which he described as "the most important infrastructural project in Croatia."

Plenković wrapped up his visit to China by expressed satisfaction with his stay in that country and the talks he held with the Chinese politicians and business people.

A delegation of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), led by HDZ chief Andrej Plenković, will take part in a congress of the European People's Party (EPP) in Helsinki on Wednesday and Thursday when EPP members are expected to elect their lead candidate for the next European elections, scheduled to take place on May 23-26, 2019.

Plenković will also hold a bilateral meeting with Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila on Wednesday.

The EPP meeting in Helsinki will also be attended by government leaders from the EPP ranks, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, as well as European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, European Council President Donald Tusk and European Parliament President Antonio Tajani.

Some EPP members are going to support Manfred Weber, currently the leader of the parliamentary group of the PPE in the European Parliament, in the running for the next President of the European Commission.

Manfred Weber is running against Alexander Stubb inside the group as the other EPP member aspiring to become this entity's candidate to the European Commission top job.

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ZAGREB, October 29, 2018 - The head of the parliamentary group of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) Branko Bačić said on Monday that Milan Bandić, leader of the Milan Bandic 365 party, had not asked to be added to the government and Bačić ruled out a government reshuffle, which the media speculate about following a rise in the number of lawmakers in the parliamentary club of Bandić's party.

The current government is halfway into its four-year term, Bačić said, adding that he could not speculate if there would be any changes in the make-up of the government later on, but currently there was no talk of a government reshuffle. "A marked increase in the number of lawmakers in Bandić's club says a lot about political parties and clubs which those lawmakers who joined Bandić left. This does not mean anything for the relations in the ruling majority," Bačić said when asked by reporters about the crossing of the floor and changes in sizes of parliamentary clubs.

Bačić also refused to answer hypothetical questions about what could happen if Bandić asked the government to be given a department. "I am not worried about the motives of those who have joined Bandić's club," Bačić said, adding that the HDZ had a stable majority of those who support it and the government.

As for Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS) leader Darinko Kosor's statement that his party would leave the ruling coalition if Zagreb mayor Bandić's party joined the government, Bačić said that his message was that the HSLS should continue cooperating with the current ruling majority. "Darinko Kosor is an extremely fair coalition partner. There has been no dispute so far on any important topic and we will continue cooperating with the HSLS," Bačić said.

MP Stjepan Čuraj of the Croatian People's Party (HNS) said on Monday that this junior partner in the ruling coalition would no longer be part of the government if Zagreb mayor Milan Bandić's party joined it and that, if that happened, the HNS' Construction Minister Predrag Štromar and Education Minister Blaženka Divjak would leave.

"Eighteen months ago we gave a show of confidence in Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and this government and we absolutely don't expect that to happen. However, if it does happen, there will be absolutely no support for Milan Bandić in the government nor his associates from the Independents for Croatia in the Zagreb City Council," Čuraj told reporters.

He said the HNS "won't participate in such a government" and that its motives for joining the government were "clear, education first and foremost," which he said was obstructed by those against change such as Bandić. "We certainly can't continue to work on what we promised citizens if someone who is against that joins the government."

MP Marija Puh recently left the HNS to join Bandić's party.

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ZAGREB, October 27, 2018 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Saturday that his Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party would most likely run in elections for the European Parliament independently, voicing confidence that it would win.

Asked by reporters in Split if the HDZ would run in the spring 2019 polls independently, Plenković said they had not talked about it yet but most probably they would because they had many great potential candidates. He is confident the HDZ will win the elections because, he said, it runs a pro-European government and is part of the biggest political family in Europe, so it should contribute to the victory of the European People's Party.

Plenković dismissed the accusations of a referendum initiative for changing election legislation concerning the counting of the signatures collected. He said he saw nothing contentious in the count and that the Public Administration Ministry had invited everyone wishing to check the signatures declared invalid to do so, calling this highly transparent.

Asked if Croatia should put up a barrier along the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina given the migrant crisis, he said "we are not at that stage." "Croatia's border police, with 6,300 members, is protecting our border and preventing illegal migration in cooperation with the border police forces of our neighbours."

Plenkovicćsaid there would be no government reshuffle despite the fact that Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandić's party now had ten MPs. He said Bandić was not asking for nor being offered anything.

He was speaking to the press after a meeting of the HDZ's Split county branch, which discussed what the government is doing for Dalmatia and other coastal regions as well as islands.

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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 9, 2018 - After being interrogated at the Office of the Chief State Prosecutor over claims of leaking information from a police investigation into an elite prostitution ring in 2011, Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) deputy president and Parliament Deputy Speaker Milijan Brkić, said that it was sad to see that media outlets find him responsible for attempts to undermine that police investigation which resulted in arrests and in a court conviction.

ZAGREB, October 3, 2018 - A parliamentary debate on a bill on firearm possession on Wednesday went off on a tangent, focusing on "historical topics", after Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) MP Stevo Culej said that "every able-bodied Croat in areas bordering with Serbia should have a firearm within their reach," with Social Democratic Party (SDP) MP Nenad Stazić retorting that Culej was making fascist statements.

ZAGREB, October 2, 2018 - Prime Minister and Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) leader Andrej Plenković said on Tuesday evening that he had talked with HDZ deputy president Milijan Brkić about the latest allegations directed against him and also underscored that the HDZ wants everything to be clarified regarding media reports that in 2011 Brkić had alerted suspects involved in an elite prostitution ring that they were under police surveillance.

HDZ deputy president Milijan Brkić allegedly leaked confidential information about an investigation into elite prostitution.

ZAGREB, September 30, 2018 - War Veterans Minister Tomo Medved condemned on Saturday an attack on MPs Milorad Pupovac and Boris Milošević of the Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS), saying veterans knew best what suffering was.