ZAGREB, November 6, 2019 - President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović on Wednesday said that Croatia needs an economic growth of at least 5 percent so that citizens can feel an improvement in the standard of living.

During a conference on Croatia's economic policy in 2020, organised by the Croatian Association of Economists, at which she talked about key challenges and preconditions for economic development, President Grabar-Kitarović asserted that there are more and more positive elements because the economy is growing, as are wages and employment, and Croatia is climbing up the ladder of competitiveness, along with positive trends in public and foreign debt trends.

According to her estimate, Croatia needs a growth of five percent for citizens to be able to feel that in their living standards.

"We need an economic growth of at least five percent a year and only then will we feel any real improvement in standards. We are growing now but we continue to be oversensitive to external instabilities, and that growth will slow down to two percent as we still have not set the foundations for stronger growth. Some parts of the country still are lagging behind drastically and even though we are growing, comparable countries are growing faster," she said.

She said that all that negatively reflected on demographic changes and that it is necessary to establish conditions that will permanently improve living standards, rationalise and digitise state administration, and that public administration has to be a support and not a barrier to an innovative economy.

The conditions for an accelerated growth are zero tolerance of corruption, a comprehensive reform of state administration and the judiciary, and facilitating the implementation of innovations.

"We have to increase the level of employment, modernise working conditions, decrease emigration and the shortage of a qualified labour force," she added.

She believes that it is necessary to do away with the notions of a minimum wage and child allowances, and that it is necessary to reshape the economy so social welfare does not rule.

"Our people do not want welfare benefits but a well-paid and dignified job," she underlined.

Croatia needs to become a place for new investments and in that regard tax reliefs are welcome, she said. Investors need to be provided with legal security for their investment because the uncertainty of regulations and long-standing court procedures have become too heavy a burden on development, she added.

According to Grabar-Kitarović, it is necessary to strongly enhance the pension and healthcare systems and to advocate more strongly for citizens with below average earnings and for pensioners.

She underlined the importance of economic diplomacy to support exports and attract investments.

We are stagnating without any solutions for new jobs, says economic analyst

The president of the Croatian Association of Economists, Ljubo Jurčić said that Croatia was achieving political success in Europe, but that the final results are how people live in Croatia. Croatia is stagnating in Europe, he underscored, and we do not have a solution as to how to create jobs and find additional workers.

There is no industrial policy. There is no analysis of the exchange rate policy or of the second pension pillar and that is holding us back, Jurčić concluded.

Minister of Environment and Energy Tomislav Ćorić said that with regard to the reduced public debt to GDP ratio, Croatia is one of the most successful economies in Europe.

"Our credit rating has once again been raised to investment level, Croatia is in the company of the best, profit tax has been reduced, the non-taxable income has been increased, VAT has been reduced on products and services and so on," he said.

Ćorić claimed that there were 1.5 million employed in July, which was the most in the past 28 years, and that the average wage had increased by 5% over the past 3 years. The minimum wage too has increased, as has the wage base for public servants, and pension allowances also have gone up.

"Croatia today is miles ahead of the Croatia of 2015 and the figures can be checked," he said.

The numbers give us a basis for optimism and we need that in 2020, he said and added that he believes economic growth in 2020 will be better than this year.

More economic news can be found in the Business section.

ZAGREB, November 3, 2019 - President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović told the N1 commercial broadcaster on Sunday that she would present the agenda for her second term on 11 November.

Grabar-Kitarović won her first five-year term on 11 January 2015 and Croatia is to hold presidential elections in late December.

Considering the N1 reporter's remark that at the start of her first term she said that Croatia would become one of the most prosperous countries, Grabar-Kitarović explained that she had not said then that Croatia would become the most prosperous during her five year's term but that she believed that it could happen and that efforts should be directed towards that goal.

"Economic indicators are (now) better. However, that has not yet been transposed into the lives of people. I want people to live a better life and that they can feel (those economic results) in their wages. This is realistic and possible and this will be proposed in my next agenda," the president said.

As for her statement about former Communist Yugoslavia and having been born on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain and the reporter's comment that she, nevertheless, attended the last year of her secondary education in the USA, Grabar-Kitarović said that she had managed to finish her secondary education in the USA thanks to the hard work of her father who was a butcher.

Considering Josip Broz Tito who was at the helm of the Socialist Yugoslav federation, until his death in 1980, Grabar-Kitarović described him as an intelligent man "and when he saw that Yugoslavia was going to ruin economically and that the people would start revolting, he began to give in gradually."

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

ZAGREB, October 29, 2019 - The Croatian Premier League team Rijeka FC on Monday asked for and was given an official statement from President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović regarding her statement about the club's status in the 1980s in which she said that at the time Rijeka was more of a reserve club for the Serbian Partizan and Crvena Zvezda football clubs, which drew many negative comments.

"The purpose of the then political influence on our club's management was to constantly tie Rijeka with Belgrade. The Rijeka that I followed as a supporter in my school days is not the Rijeka we have today. The most talented Croatian players like Zoran Šestan at the time sat on the bench while some others, less talented but politically more suitable were given an opportunity. It was in that context that I described the then Rijeka football club as a reserve club. I know well what the status of Rijeka in the 1980s was and no one can convince me otherwise," the president said.

Grabar-Kitarović also responded to Primorje-Gorski Kotar Deputy County Prefect Marko Boras Mandić who strongly criticised her statement about Rijeka being a reserve Serbian club.

"Armada (Rijeka supporters' club) has always been a symbol of the Croatian Rijeka, of the spite and resistance to hegemonistic policies. I have always supported and will support my Rijeka, my football club... the Rijeka Football Club believes that our club has always belonged to its supporters, its city, region, Croatia and all those who have it in its heart," she said, among other things.

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

ZAGREB, October 28, 2019 - Primorje-Gorski Kotar County Deputy Prefect Marko Baras Mandić said on Monday that President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović's statement about the Rijeka Football Club was deeply insulting for the county's residents and that her statement about Goli Otok was dangerous.

"I am really shocked as a citizen and deputy prefect because (the president) described the county's residents as proponents of a policy that caused a lot of harm to Croatia in the 1990s while forgetting that at its first official match in Zagreb on October 17 and later at Rijeka's Kantrida stadium on December 22, the Croatian national football team included as many as four players of the Rijeka Football Club, a 'reserve Serbian club" as she described it," said Mandić.

"(She) has insulted all of us who in the 1980s wore the red-white-and-blue scarves and got beaten by the regime's batons across Yugoslavia by saying that we had rooted for 'a Serbian club', said Mandić.

He stressed that he was shocked the most by Grabar-Kitarović's statement about Goli Otok. "She said that she would benefit the most if a week of Yugoslavia was introduced because she would send all those speaking against her to Goli Otok. That is a very dangerous statement, resembling statements by comrade Stalin rather than by a Croatian president," Boras Mandić said, adding that he had to make the statement as a citizen and someone who had to protect Croatian citizens, including those in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County.

Rijeka Mayor Vojko Obsernel, too, commented on Grabar-Kitarović's statements on Twitter. "After she left the country from behind the Iron Curtain with a red passport to go to school in the United States, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović today insulted the Rijeka Football Club by saying that it was a reserve Serbian club. How deep can that reservoir of stupidity be? Where does it end?" Obersnel wrote on Twitter.

Presidential candidate Miroslav Škoro, too, commented on Grabar-Kitarović's statement about the Rijeka club, posting on his Facebook wall of photo of himself standing at Rijeka's stadium, with the message "Rijeka is great", and describing the debate about the Iron Curtain as tragicomic.

In a comment on her speech in Washington on Sunday, in which she mentioned among other things that she had lived behind the Iron Curtain, Grabar-Kitarović said on Sunday:

"Churchill said that an iron curtain had descended from Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic and that all capitals of Central European culture, including Belgrade, were left behind it. Regardless of how things changed, whether they were non-aligned or not, they were not neutral," the president told the press during a visit to Split when asked to explain her speech during her acceptance of the Fulbright Life Achievement Award at a ceremony in Washington on Saturday.

"Please, let no one try to convince me about a life that never was. We all experienced it in the former Yugoslavia. We all know how it was to travel with a red passport, the humiliation we had to go through, what it meant to pay a deposit. If anyone is nostalgic about the former Yugoslavia, let's introduce one week of the former Yugoslavia. Do you know who will benefit the most? I will, because if you say anything against me, you will end up on Goli Otok," she said, referring to an island prison where political prisoners were held during communist rule.

More Rijeka news can be found in the Lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, October 28, 2019 - The leader of the Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HDZ BH), Dragan Čović, has confirmed that his party will support Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović in her bid for a second term as President of Croatia.

Speaking in an interview with the Sarajevo-based daily Dnevni Avaz of Monday, Čović said that the HDZ BH would support Grabar-Kitarović in the presidential race. "The HDZ BH will join in the election campaign when it formally begins," he said.

Citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina who have dual Bosnian and Croatian citizenship are entitled to vote in presidential and parliamentary elections in Croatia.

Čović said he hoped the forthcoming Croatian presidency of the European Union would help Bosnia and Herzegovina catch up with other countries in the region in their efforts to join the bloc.

"The Croatian presidency of the Union in the first half of next year gives Bosnia and Herzegovina a chance to catch up with Albania and North Macedonia because we have met all the conditions except forming a government," Čović said.

Čović said that in negotiations with the predominantly Bosniak Party of Democratic Action (SDA) he would continue to insist on amending electoral legislation, suggesting as the best solution the election model used by Belgium.

Čović said that his party supported the country's NATO membership bid, but added that one should not insist on it the way the SDA did because this was a process that would not be completed in 20 years' time if it continued at the present pace.

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

ZAGREB, October 27, 2019 - President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović received the Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Award at a ceremony in Washington on Saturday and on that occasion she said she was honoured by this award which she dedicated to her family and her country.

In late August, the Fulbright non-profit association stated that it would award the 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award to the Croatian president for her global contributions as a leader, diplomat and public servant.

"With this award, the Fulbright Association honours President Grabar-Kitarović for her remarkable contributions as a leader, diplomat and public servant," Fulbright said in a press release then.

I can't say you how much this award means to me, the Croatian head of state said at the ceremony in Washington.

In her speech, Grabar-Kitarović said that she had been a girl born on "the wrong side of the Iron Curtain" who used to dream about other places in which people enjoyed the freedom of choice and could freely express their opinion.

She said that she was proud of having been a Fulbright scholarship recipient. From 2002 to 2003, she was a Fulbright scholar on pre-doctoral research in international relations and security policy at the George Washington University.

She said that during her education in Washington she had also learnt not to be prejudiced and to be open to new ideas.

This award inspires me to build a future-looking approach, she added.

"What we need now more than ever is the true leadership and vision," said Grabar-Kitarović.

She also informed participants in the ceremony about the Three Seas Initiative and underscored the importance of the empowerment of women.

"Don't look at women only as victims... they are a source of strength and change," said Grabar-Kitarović who this year became the Chair of the Council of Women World Leaders, a network of 75 current and former Presidents and Prime Ministers.

Apart from the Croatian president, the other two 2019 Lifetime Achievement awardees were Melissa Block, an American radio host and journalist, and James S. Polshek, an American architect.

The Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Award honours Fulbright alumni whose distinguished careers and civic and cultural contributions have sought to expand the boundaries of human wisdom, empathy, and perception. Recipients of the Award show exemplary commitments to creative leadership and liberal education. The Achievement Award was first presented in 2000, the association says on its website.

More news about Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, October 19, 2019 - Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović said on Friday that major issues should be resolved first and then steps taken for everybody to feel safe before setting up official and street signs in the Cyrillic alphabet in the eastern town of Vukovar.

"I find important the decision made by the Vukovar Town Council that conditions have not been met for Cyrillic signs, having in mind that the constitutional law on the rights of ethnic minorities envisages that all those rights must be in the service of facilitating coexistence between the majority Croatian people and minorities, and that the rights of the Croatian people should be respected," the president said.

I was engaged in efforts to reach the peaceful reintegration (of Croatia's Danube region in the 1996-1998 period). I can say that the results achieved are better than expected. The Croatians and the Serbs, who had enough courage at the time, agreed on coexistence. Croatia was the first to show that it did not want warfare and acceded to some conditions, although I believe that this could have been settled in some other way, the president said.

The Croatian state leadership demonstrated that it did not want a war and that it was committed to peace and coexistence with the Serb and other ethnic minorities, she said.

I believe that the issues about which I warned a few days ago will be resolved, Grabar-Kitarović said, criticising again the national judicial system for "under-performance" in dealing with war crimes. There is no reconciliation nor future without justice, she added.

As for Cyrillic signs in Vukovar, she commented that first some major things should be solved. "I do not underestimate any issue. The Cyrillic alphabet is important to some people, and if I can help in any way on behalf of the majority Croatian people, I will do that," the president said during her visit to the village of Novi Farkašić.

More news about the status of Serbs in Croatia can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, October 11, 2019 - Migrations are one of the greatest challenges of our time and the EU has to deal with them jointly and responsibly, Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović said addressing the Arraiolos Group summit in Athens on Friday and pointed out the huge efforts Croatia has been making to protect the EU's longest external land border.

Grabar-Kitarović was addressing the 15th informal meeting of 13 EU heads of state without executive powers, known as the Arraiolos Group, which is being held in Greece this year, the two central topics of the meeting being ways of dealing efficiently with the economic and migrant crises and jointly resolving modern security challenges in the EU and its member states.

"The migration issue is one of the biggest challenges of our era," said Grabar-Kitarović and expressed regret that the EU had not yet responded with solutions that would be acceptable to all member states.

"Only with joint effort can we solve that issue so that we can protect migrants and their rights and relieve the negative consequences of illegal migrations," and that is why all stakeholders have to "act responsibly," she said.

Croatia is "investing huge efforts to successfully protect the EU's longest external land border," she underscored.

She rejected claims by some organisations and politicians that Croatia's police were applying brutality in preventing illegal migrations from neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Refugee camps are being erected in the neighbouring country along the border with Croatia, with migrants attempting to cross it to get to western EU members, she recalled.

Cooperation between authorities in Sarajevo and local authorities in the country is not good, she said and reiterated that Croatia was successfully protecting the longest land border and was doing everything to access the Schengen Area as soon as possible.

Europe must not be slow in seeking answers and solutions to the challenges of our times, the summit's host, Greek President Prokopios Pavlopoulos, said.

He called for strengthening European institutions during the current time of huge challenges to the European Union and the world and warned that Europe had to catch up with the times so that it could handle challenges.

Speaking about the economic crisis, President Grabar-Kitarović said that the outlook for global growth and preventing possible economic crises was dwindling and according to forecasts economic growth would slow down to the lowest annual rate (2.9 percent in 2019, 3 percent in 2020) since the financial crisis.

In those circumstances we can expect a "fall in economic activity, a loss of jobs and further impoverishment of the already vulnerable social groups."

She also cited the escalation of trade tensions as well as the threat of a no-deal Brexit and the demographic decline.

"Even though there is no direct danger to Croatia's economy in that regard an even mild no-deal exit (by Great Britain) will have a huge impact and slow down growth rates in Europe and we will all feel it," she warned.

The population decrease is strongly affecting some EU member states, she said and added that demography was a central priority of her term in office.

"The negative demographic trend in Croatia is already restricting economic growth, particularly in the east (Slavonia)," she underscored.

In the future the EU has to work on erasing visible and invisible borders within the Union itself, she added, stressing that the uneven development in the European community continued to be a major challenge.

Bulgarian President Rumen Radev warned that the EU was still a Europe of differences, with Grabar-Kitarović adding that the Three Seas Initiative was a good way to bridge those differences.

Croatia has taken a proactive role in that initiative to strengthen Europe's resilience, particularly with regard to energy security and neutralising the lack of infrastructure in central Europe, she said.

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

ZAGREB, October 3, 2019 - For the time being, incumbent President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović's bid for a second term in office is supported by the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party, whose candidate she was in the last presidential election, while members of the parliamentary opposition are very critical of the results of her five-year term.

After she addressed the public earlier in the day to announce her candidacy for another term as president, HDZ whip Branko Bačić said that his party fully supported her candidacy. "In her address I recognised the enthusiasm, desire, will and ability... to serve another term as president," Bačić said.

He stressed that during Grabar-Kitarović's term, and also owing to the work of the Andrej Plenković government, Croatia had never had a better international reputation and status in the EU and the rest of the world, and the Croatian Army had never been better, readier and more equipped, with visible progress of the military and security system.

"Speaking of presidential candidates, I would also say that she is a serious politician on the domestic scene. Voters will know how to distinguish between responsible politicians who lead the country in the right direction and with whom a majority of the Croatian people will identify and those who are irresponsible," Bačić concluded.

Social Democrat Gordan Maras said the main question one should ask oneself today was what the last five years would be remembered for.

"Did Croatia make certain progress; did it accomplish what the president expected and said at the beginning of her term? Let us remember the statement that Croatia will be the wealthiest country, that the president will move her office from Pantovčak, that she will cut her office's costs. None of that happened," said Maras.

He said citizens would remember Grabar-Kitarović for certain situations that were not crucial for the post of president, "for her travels, her socialising at various events, her last trip to the United States. In a situation when the country has the most corrupt government ever, when there are so many scandals, when society lacks the fundamental values that make people want to live in Croatia, citizens expect the president to take a position and say 'No more of that'."

He added that the incumbent president could not do it because she was running for a new term with the direct support of those who had made the situation in the country what it was - the HDZ.

"The presidential vote must be a referendum on whether citizens are happy with Croatia and with the way they live... and I believe they are not," said Maras, adding that his party's presidential candidate Zoran Milanović was the only alternative to the current policy.

Kazimir Varga of Zagreb mayor Milan Bandić's Labour and Solidarity Party said that the party would decide on whether it would nominate its own presidential candidate, call its members to vote according to their conscience or support some of the existing candidates after elections were called.

MOST leader Božo Petrov said he was confident that presidential candidate Miroslav Škoro would definitely make it to the second round and that he had a realistic chance of winning the elections.

"These elections are important because finally a president can be elected who does not come from the two parties that have proven over the last 20 years that they have nothing new to offer and do not protect citizens' interests," Petrov said.

Independent member of parliament Bojan Glavašević, who used to be a Social Democrat, described the president's address as "a pile of utter nonsense". "After five years she leaves behind only scorched earth. Of all the people who have said that they want to run for president, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović is definitely the worst," he said.

"She has no morals if after five years of very selective, opportunistic patriotism and divisions she has caused, she wants to run again for president. She is the worst, most unpopular president in the history of Croatia and I sincerely hope citizens will vote accordingly," Glavašević said.

Asked who the best candidate was, he said that he did not intend to join in any candidate's campaign but that there was no mystery regarding his choice.

"I support any candidacy that can make Croatia a better place, any progressive candidacy and anyone who stands a serious chance of moving Grabar-Kitarović from the post which she did not justify in any way. Zoran Milanović is definitely one such candidate," said Glavašević.

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

ZAGREB, October 2, 2019 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Wednesday that what separated President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović from the other presidential candidates was her engagement on Croatia's international positioning, the stability of institutions and the strengthening of the military.

Speaking to the press before Grabar-Kitarović announced her bid for re-election, Plenković said she would be backed, aside from his HDZ party, by a majority of the Croatian people because they knew what was useful for the country and what was less useful.

Asked what distinguished Grabar-Kitarović from the other candidates, he said "it's obvious." "Her achievements in the first term, the direction of the country we run, the fact that she engaged herself on Croatia's international positioning, that she saw to the stability of institutions, that in this term we strengthened the Croatian army, defence, which is in her remit."

Plenković said all HDZ members would participate in the presidential campaign. "If you are a member of the party, if you support the presidential candidate, you have the obligation to participate."

Speaking of an upcoming strike in elementary and high schools and Education Minister Blaženka Divjak's Facebook post that she is not happy with the talks between the government and school unions, the prime minister underlined the importance of a uniform government policy.

The unions know the government's offer, which relates to a part of this year, while talks about the future will be held later, he said. "When you have a dialogue, it's important that people meet halfway. There is good will on our side about all the issues that have been raised in our term and all will be resolved."

Asked if he could risk a strike in schools ahead of the presidential election, Plenković said the two were not related and that the Science and Education Ministry had accomplished good things.

"We consider education important; we appreciate the contribution of teachers and professors. Without education, there's no competitiveness in the future of Croatia and new generations. We must also take into account the message, which is continuous, that we can spend only what we can. We ask the unions for understanding. The offer was good."

As for Međimurje County prefect Matija Posavec's exit from the HNS, a junior partner in the ruling coalition, Plenković said that irrespective of who was in power locally, the government helped everyone in an organised and engaged fashion.

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