ZAGREB, October 12, 2019 - Vukovar mayor Ivan Penava is considering running for president of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party as a way to see to it that war criminals are finally punished.

"This is the first time that I'm talking about running in intra-party elections. The anniversary is approaching and I had to decide what the smartest thing to do was from the aspect of resolving the fate of the victims. When I decided that protest rallies are counterproductive and that it's no good to wait for a year with no results, I had to think of the best course of action," Penava says in Saturday's issue of the Večernji List daily.

Penava is considering running for HDZ president as the only way to put the focus on and resolve the problem of unpunished Homeland War crimes given that, he says, state institutions have done nothing about that in the year since the big rally held in Vukovar to protest against the slow prosecution of war crimes.

After Davor Ivo Stier, Miro Kovač and likely Tomislav Karamarko, Penava could be the fourth counter-candidate to incumbent HDZ president Andrej Plenković in intra-party elections next spring, Večernji List said.

Prime Minister and HDZ president Andrej Plenković said on Saturday he had not noticed that Vukovar mayor Ivan Penava had decided to leave the party, and commented on Penava's statement that he is considering to run for HDZ president by saying that "it's good to have an ambition."

Asked by the press in Osijek if the dissatisfaction in the ruling party was indeed so big, given that Penava might be the fourth candidate for the party president's position, and if he considered himself partly responsible, Plenković said he was "certainly responsible for the fact that, when I took it over, the HDZ was 19 million kuna in the red and now it's considerably in the black and financially consolidated."

"I'm responsible for the fact that the HDZ won the parliamentary and local elections, the European elections as well, although we didn't win the planned five but four seats. The economy is growing, the investment rating, European funds, the international reputation... I feel very responsible for this status of Croatia, the government and the HDZ."

More HDZ news can be found in the Politics section.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 4th of May, 2019, Vukovar Mayor Ivan Penava and the CEO of the Swiss company Immo Invest Partner, Džek Djordić, signed a contract on the sale of the Dunav (Danube) Hotel in Vukovar on Saturday, and the Swiss company has thus announced the construction of a new four-star hotel, in which it will invest a massive 200 million kuna.

"This is a strategically important property in Vukovar, the building of the former Dunav Hotel, which has attracted a lot of interest from the public," stated Penava, pointing out that the building is located in an extremely valuable location at the very mouth of the Vuka along the Danube, but also because it involves a building that has not been in function for nine years now.

He added that the city, owing to the fact that the hotel had remained totally out of use for a long time, bought the former Hotel Dunav in order to sell it to a hotel business that had already established its branch office in Vukovar. The city will do everything to make the investor feel welcome with their investment which is strategic and considered to be at the state-level.

Deputy Mayor Marijan Pavliček recalled that the City of Vukovar had purchased Hotel Dunav for 10.3 million kuna, while a price of 10.7 million kuna was asked for at the public tender, and the aforementioned Swiss company offered 11.3 million kuna and paid the difference in accordance to the higher requested price.

"The investors are obliged to collect all of the necessary permits in the next eighteen months after which the parcel will be handed over to their ownership, after which a seven-year legal deadline for the construction and commissioning of the facility comes into force," Pavliček said, adding that the investors have promised a significantly shorter implementation deadline, more specifically until the year 2023.

Pavliček emphasised the fact that this is the biggest investment after the Homeland War in the tourist sector of Vukovar, which will open up welcome new jobs.

Immo Invest Partner's CEO Džek Djordić announced the construction of a four-star hotel with about 120 rooms, 240 beds, and which will include several restaurants, offices and a multimedia space in which about 200 million kuna will be invested, and the hotel should be open in 2023.

Immo Invest Partner Board Member Petar Đorđić thanked the mayor and his deputy for their engagement in the realisation of this deal and said that all those involved are great optimists and that the entire investment will be realised within the anticipated deadline.

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