ZAGREB, August 1, 2019 - Commenting on President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović's statement in Israel that Bosnia and Herzegovina is controlled by "militant Islam", which she has denied, Zoran Milanović said that during trips abroad, especially to the Middle East, one should discuss such matters as little as possible, and added that he believes that this information "leaked from the Israeli president's team."

"In fact, they (the Israelis) should apologise to Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, and she should pick her interlocutors more carefully and watch what she says," the Social Democratic Party's (SDP) candidate for President of the Republic said during a visit to the northwestern town of Čakovec on Wednesday evening.

Milanović believes that the president's statement has not done much damage, "although this is the president's third major misunderstanding with the press in a very short time." He said that that was "very unfair of the host, who is apparently our strategic partner, although we have declared them so, they did not declare themselves that."

He said it was inconceivable to him that after a closed-door meeting between two presidents such things should appear in the press. "That never happens," he stressed.

"This is the first time I see this happen. It was someone from the Israel president's team who leaked it to the journalist, and when they saw that they caused damage and offended the guest, they tried to mend the situation a bit, but that's not how things go," Milanović said.

"Next time she should be careful who she is talking to. She'd better not declare everyone a strategic partner, because she told Iranians the same thing two years ago. People see that, it's flippant, insincere and it's not going anywhere. But the most important thing is that we don't get into trouble because of that. Pushing to become a strategic partner to Israel, a country that is in serious trouble, a country that I support, but I don't support the policy of its government because its policy is not the one being pursued by EU member states," Milanović said. "We don't want to cause a fire with an exaggerated statement because we are not a country that should be rushing to the front ranks in certain matters," he added.

Commenting on the government's plan to buy back the Hungarian energy group MOL's stake in the INA oil company, Milanović said: "They made a promise no one forced them to and were aware that they would not deliver it. A realistic solution is to put pressure on the other side."

"How did they get the 45 percent and later acquire even more shares? Which party made that possible? Now they want to clean up what they soiled 15 years ago, but nothing will come of it," he said.

He said that this government was sympathetic to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whom he described as "a mockery of European democracy". "He does not respect Croatia but is mocking us," he added.

"In the 1990s Hungary was a very good ally to us. As a member of the diplomatic service at the time, I can say that they were more supportive of us than the Germans and Austrians. Things are different now," Milanović said.

More news about presidential elections can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, July 31, 2019 - Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović on Wednesday resolutely dismissed a Jerusalem Post article which says that during her meeting with Israel's president she said that Bosnia and Herzegovina was "controlled by militant Islam" and had "in some respects been taken over by people who have connections with Iran and terrorist organizations," which was strongly condemned in Sarajevo.

"Absolutely not. I repeat, I didn't say that. With President Reuven Rivlin I talked in the context of what I'm always saying about Bosnia and Herzegovina and our neighbours and what I, after all, said at the press conferences with Rivlin and Prime Minister Netanyahu, which is that I wish to see all our neighbours as European Union member states as soon as possible," Grabar-Kitarović told Croatian reporters covering her state visit to Israel.

"I have no idea how that statement came about because I didn't talk with any reporter, didn't give interviews nor made any statements other than those you heard," she added.

She said this was about comments on comments made by the journalist who wrote that.

The Croat and Bosniak members of the BiH Presidency, Željko Komšić and Šefik Džaferović respectively, on Tuesday strongly attacked Grabar-Kitarović over her alleged statement that BiH was "unstable" and "controlled by militant Islam."

Komšić said Grabar-Kitarović was "unstable and not BiH," while Džaferović accused her of "repeating lies which spread xenophobia" and that Croatia had a "fascist policy" towards BiH.

"I repeat, I didn't say that. And I completely reject these strong responses in which Croatia is compared with fascism or a fascist state," Grabar-Kitarović said, calling it complete nonsense.

She said it was high time to think a little about Croatia-BiH relations. "Recently we have seen BiH take many steps about Croatia which are quite aggressive, from accusations about the illegal operations of our secret services to judicial threats concerning the Pelješac bridge."

The two sides should talk about cooperation and how to deal with common issues and the threats which are evidently reappearing in our region, and about how we can help each other resolve those problems, the president said.

"On the other hand, Croatia is here and Croatia is willing to help any neighbouring state, including BiH, in the reform process and everything else which they must comply with in order to become EU members as soon as possible," she added.

Asked about Iran and terrorist organisations connected with it that operate in BiH, the president said she did not mention Iran at all at the press conferences in Israel. "Regarding the talks with the president and the prime minister, I talked in the context of the views the European Union shares on Iran, namely on honouring the agreement on nuclear weapons, i.e. the use of nuclear energy for peacetime ends."

More news about relations between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, July 29, 2019 - President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović began a state visit to Israel on Sunday by meeting with Croatian Franciscans in Jerusalem and presenting them with the Charter of the Republic of Croatia for fostering the spiritual tradition of Christianity, looking after Croatian pilgrims and promoting Croatian identity.

She met with Fr. Siniša Srebrenović, who accepted the Charter, Fr. Francesco Patton, the Custodian of the Holy Land, and Fr. Marcelo Cichinelli, the Guardian of the Franciscan Monastery.

"It is my great pleasure to meet you here this evening, after visiting the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre, which was allegedly last opened by a Croat, Fr. Bonifacije Drakolica. As President of Croatia, I am particularly proud of all Croatian Franciscans who, for the past seven centuries, together with their brethren from all over Europe, have been guarding Christ's tomb and looking after Christians in the Holy Land, and who have made an immeasurable contribution to the preservation of Croatian identity, language and culture," Grabar-Kitarović said.

She said that long was the list of Croatian Franciscans who had accomplished their spiritual and humanitarian mission in the Holy Land, working as scientists and writers of historical and religious publications and helping the sick and needy. She mentioned Fr. Drakolica who had led the renovation of the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre in the mid-16th century.

Grabar-Kitarović said that the Franciscans' mission was evangelisation and living in brotherhood, poverty and solidarity. "These are the values that have been promoted for centuries by Croatian Franciscans from all provinces of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina," she said.

The Croatian president begins the official part of her visit on Monday when she is due to meet with President Reuven Rivlin, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Speaker of the Knesset Yuli-Yoel Edelstein and Foreign Minister Israel Katz.

More news about relations between Croatia and Israel can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, July 26, 2019 - Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović is travelling to Israel on Sunday for a state visit during which she will meet with her host, President Reuven Rivlin, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Knesset Speaker Yuli-Yoel Edelstein and Foreign Minister Israel Katz for talks on many topics of common interest, from the economy to cooperation in security and defence.

This will be the first state visit by a Croatian president to Israel and is an indicator of the continuation of the partnership between the two countries as well as of Croatia's strategic commitment to a close cooperation with this, as Ambassador Ilan Mor recalls, geographically and geostrategically isolated Middle Eastern state.

President Rivlin paid a two-day state visit to Croatia a year ago, while President Grabar-Kitarović met with PM Netanyahu in Jerusalem in 2015.

Monday is reserved for talks with the state leadership and a visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, which the Croatian president already visited in July 2015 during a working visit to Israel. On that occasion she expressed deep sorrow for those killed in the Holocaust in Croatia under the WWII Ustasha regime, which she said "cast a stain on our country."

The two sides will renew a memorandum of cooperation in Holocaust research between Croatia's Science and Education Ministry and Education Agency and Yad Vashem.

On Tuesday, Grabar-Kitarović will visit the port of Haifa where she will inaugurate a catamaran built in Croatia. She will be accompanied by Croatian Economy Minister Darko Horvat and an executive of the Port of Rijeka. The two ports are scheduled to sign a cooperation agreement.

Although Croatia's attempt to buy Israeli fighter jets last year failed, there are indications that other elements from that deal are continuing, and negotiations are expected to continue on the construction of an ammunition factory in Croatia.

The Croatian president will also visit Nazareth on Tuesday.

She will wrap up her visit on Wednesday with a meeting on cyber security, on which the two countries will sign a cooperation agreement.

More news about relations between Croatia and Israel can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, July 21, 2019 - Bulgarian President Rumen Radev is coming to Croatia next week for a two-day official visit at the invitation of his Croatian counterpart Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, her office announced in a press release.

The visit kicks off on Tuesday with a welcome ceremony at the President's Office, a tete-a-tete between the two presidents and a bilateral meeting between the delegations of the two countries.

Also on the first day of the meeting, the Bulgarian president is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and representatives of the Bulgarian community in Croatia.

On Wednesday, Radev travels to the coastal city of Zadar where he is due to meet with Zadar County Prefect Božidar Longin. He will also visit the Croatian Air Force base in nearby Zemunik.

More news about relations between Croatia and Bulgaria can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, July 18, 2019 - The Croatian Journalists Association (HND) said on Thursday it was appalled by President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović's "scandalous statements ... unworthy of the office she holds, in which she shamefully instructs journalists how to do their job."

"The Croatian president's message to our colleagues, 'Don't follow foreign media which work in I don't know whose interest', aside from accusing our foreign colleagues in a very ugly way and without any arguments, is trying to discipline journalists in Croatia in a very perfidious way to do their job by blindly believing only one side, representatives of the authorities, and not their colleagues, whom she virtually labelled as enemies of Croatia," the HND said in a press release.

Journalists asked the president to comment on the criticisms in many world media of her admission in a Swiss TV interview that Croatian police use violent pushback in dealing with migrants, the HND said, adding that after negative reactions at home and abroad, the president accused the Swiss TV.

"The president ended her statement with an instruction to journalists: 'As Croatian media you must present the Croatian side of the story. Don't follow foreign media which work in who knows whose interest.' This reminds us of the 1990s when some journalists, apologists of the then authorities, publicly said: 'If necessary, I will lie for Croatia," the HND said.

Journalists' job is not to work in the interest of any policy but in public interest, it added.

The president also recently criticised media outlets for misinterpreting her statements.

"I strongly reject an attempt to misinterpret my statements regarding the protection of Croatian borders against illegal migrations. I would like to point out that the Croatian police protects the Croatian and EU border in a legal, professional and humane manner in order to prevent illegal migrations, while applying force to the least possible extent towards law offenders when it is necessary to protect the security of police officers and to ensure the performance of their duties. Maintaining security is the fundamental condition for the stability and development of Croatia and is thus one of my key duties," she was quoted as saying regarding the protection of Croatian borders against illegal migrations:

"Those are the facts, no word play, incorrect translations or parts of statements taken out of context can or will ever change this," Grabar-Kitarović said.

More news about journalism in Croatia can be found in the Politics section.

July 16, 2019 - Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic makes international headlines exactly a year after her exploits in Russia. A symbol of the change in Croatia from last year's euphoria. 

It wasn't supposed to be like this.

Something feels very wrong. 

A year ago, Croatia was throwing a party like no other, and even though the national team had eliminated my native England in the semi-final, I could not help get caught of in the euphoria of the moment. 

Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic became one of the most recognised faces on the planet and searches for 'Croatian president bikini' skyrocketed (you can find out why here) as she hugged the players in the pouring rain in Moscow as President Putin looked on from under his sole umbrella. 

And while her performance in Russia (like most things in this country) was met with a mixed reaction back home, President Kolinda was an international hit, however, and The Guardian named her the real star of the World Cup. 

And just when you thought nothing could eclipse those incredible scenes, the next day Croatia did it again. Some 550,000 fans packed the streets of Zagreb to welcome home their heroes. 

Quite incredible. 

The tiny nation which dared to dream had won tens of million hearts all over the globe. Tourism chiefs were salivating at the benefits which would come from this unexpected gift. A few days later, Croatian National Tourist Board director, Kristjan Stanicic, provided an upbeat assessment of the tourism dividend for the 2019 season.

It was great to be alive, and Croatia was definitely the place to be.

And then... nothing. 

Things started to change. The football heroes of Moscow did not last long, and Croatia lost to England in the Nations Cup just three months later. 

Despite Stanicic's upbeat assessment, media and social media reports of the 2019 season is that it is heading for disaster - Croatia certainly feels a lot emptier, and the Ministry of Tourism decided to take their award-winning, transparent tourism statistics software away from public scrutiny to delay the inevitable bad news. 

Corruption scandals dominated the domestic scene, with two ministers resigning in the last couple of weeks, with more potentially to follow. 

It just did not feel quite like the tiny country which dared to dream just a year later. 

But a year to the day since Kolinda was hailed as the real hero of the World Cup, she was making the headlines again in The Guardian - this time for very different reasons, as you can read in The Guardian piece - Croatian police use violence to push back migrants, president admits. 

It doesn't quite give off the same vibes as that crazy night in Russia, does it?

A bit like many things in Croatia this summer - something is not quite right. 

When is the next World Cup again?

ZAGREB, July 12, 2019 - Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović on Thursday expressed concern over the fate of 900 workers at the Aluminij smelting plant in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and due to the escalation of the problems at that strategically important company, she requested an opinion from the Croatian government.

Grabar-Kitarović assessed that the escalation of the situation is the result of years of ignoring obvious problems in the business operations of that strategically important company.

"I am worried about the workers' fate and livelihood and strongly support them in their demands for shedding light on all the facts that led to this situation. I would like to believe that Croatia as a co-owner of Aluminij has done everything in its power to protect national interests and the interests of the workers and I have asked the government to present its opinion as a matter of urgency," Grabar-Kitarović said in a press release.

Production at Aluminij stopped just after midnight on July 9 when its electricity supply was cut off over debts incurred. The company's management board then quickly announced that it would launch bankruptcy proceedings.

Aluminij is the largest company in Herzegovina with about 900 workers and a turnover of approximately 163 million euro. It was founded in 1981 and stopped operating during the 1992-1995 war. After the war it was reconstructed with the assistance of the Croatian government in 1997. Croatia owns a 12% share in the company, the government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina entity holds 44% of its shares and workers hold the remaining 44%.

More news about the campaign for upcoming presidential elections can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, July 8, 2019 - President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, who is on a two-day official visit to Switzerland, on Monday met with Swiss President Ueli Maurer and the two officials agreed that they would work so that Croatians have equal opportunities on the Swiss labour market like other European Union citizens.

Switzerland signed a bilateral agreement on 1 June 2002 with the EU, which then comprised 15 member states, regarding the free movement of persons which was followed by separate protocols for each member state.

Switzerland was bound to sign a protocol with Croatia after it joined the EU in mid-2013, but Bern refused to do so after a referendum in 2014 in which the Swiss voted for introducing quotas for workers from the EU.

Switzerland finally signed the protocol in 2016 regarding free movement of Croatian citizens which entered into force on 1 January 2017 with the condition of a transitional period of 2+3+3+2 years of extending the application of the protocol.

"What we recommended considering that Switzerland introduced the transitional period of 2+3+3+2, was that the three and a half years that it took for the protocol to be ratified (since Croatia's accession to the EU) to be deducted from that period," Grabar-Kitarović said after meeting with Maurer in Bern.

Grabar-Kitarović underscored that if the entire transitional period were to be applied that would mean Croatian citizens would be faced with restrictions in Switzerland until 2027. It is possible however to reduce that transitional period or to refrain from extending it.

"Like the president Maurer said, Croatian immigrants are exceptionally well integrated in Swiss society. There are no problems and they do not arouse those feelings that some Swiss citizens have toward immigration," Grabar-Kitarović said.

In a referendum in February 2014, 50.3% of Swiss citizens decided to support immigration restrictions.

Currently foreigners account for 25% of the country's population with Croatians accounting for 2.2% or about 31,000 residents. If residents with dual citizenship are taken into account, that number is between 70,000 and 80,000.

"Even though my population policy is well-known and I want people to remain in Croatia or for them to return, as president I am supposed to represent the equality of all citizens. In any case, mobility is good and I hope that people who live here will return to Croatia and transfer their know-how and experiences from this regulated society," Grabar-Kitarović said.

Maurer, who does not have the authority to make decisions on immigration on his own, promised to visit Croatia soon and that they would once again discuss the issue of equal status for Croatian workers.

He said that Croatia could support Switzerland during its chairmanship of the European Union in the first half of next year because Bern has still not concluded the Institutional Framework Agreement with the EU and Switzerland "will request Zagreb's assistance."

That jeopardises Switzerland's financial contribution intended to reduce economic and social differences between certain member states.

"Considering that some EU member states do not wish to recognise equivalent Swiss stock exchanges on the European market, a framework agreement on cooperation cannot be signed because Switzerland has set that as a precondition to approve a second instalment of aid to member states, such as Croatia, where cohesion is still essential," Grabar-Kitarović said.

"That aid is important for us because so far Switzerland has invested in mine clearance, particularly in forest areas as well as in rehabilitation for land mine victims and in other areas too that are exceptionally vital for Croatia's development."

The two presidents discussed strengthening economic cooperation as well education, tourism and the transfer of know-how.

Commodity exchange between the two countries last year amounted to 353 million euro while in 2018, Croatia recorded a growth in exports to Switzerland of 14% compared to 2017. The number of bed nights by Swiss tourists to Croatia is also growing and in 2018, there were 276,000 or 5% more than in 2017.

After the meeting Grabar-Kitarović met with the President of Switzerland's National Council, Marina Carobbio Guscetti. Later, Grabar-Kitarović will meet with the heads of the Croatian Catholic Mission and representatives of Croatian associations in Switzerland.

On the second day of the visit, President Grabar-Kitarović will travel to Zurich and visit the ETH Zurich Technological University, where she will meet with Croatian professors, researchers and students.

More news about relations between Croatia and Switzerland can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, July 8, 2019 - The Conflict of Interest Commission said on Monday there were no grounds to institute proceedings against President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović after she was earlier criticised over a discount she was given for a medical check-up at a private hospital.

The commission established that the president paid the full price of the medical check-up, and that the discount, cited in numerous queries from media outlets, would not have amounted to an impermissible gift because it was also used by regular patients of the clinic.

The complaints sent to the Commission in February claimed that the president may have received a gift worth more than 500 kuna through this discount. In late February the Commission opened the case to establish the facts and decide whether to institute proceedings against Grabar-Kitarović or not.

Media said that the president had undergone a regular preventive check-up at the Radiochirurgia Zagreb hospital and was given a 20% discount, paying 6,160 kuna instead of 7,700 for the examination.

Under the Conflict of Interest Act, state officials are not allowed to receive gifts worth more than 500 kuna.

More news about the conflict of interest issues in Croatia can be found in the Politics section.