ZAGREB, 22 Sept, 2021 - Croatian President Zoran Milanović reiterated in New York on Tuesday that his current Serbian counterpart, Aleksandar Vučić, had incited to war and that he was probably proud of that.

In a talk at Columbia University on Monday, Milanović said Vučić had been a warmonger, which set off a storm in Serbia.

"You can't ignore which roles some people had in our region in the last 30 years. Blood was spilt, there was arson, killing, and some people incited to that," he told the press on Tuesday, adding that "Croatia has gentlemanly let it go but won't bury its head in the sand as many in Serbia are doing."

"I think Vučić was proud of what he was doing. This is something that should be said from time to time, especially when someone... sends on a daily basis his political holograms, spokesmen and agitators to say on his behalf whatever pops into their heads. That's dirty and methodologically cheap," Milanović said.

Vučić said on Monday that Milanović was saying such things about him, "shallow and low insults", because Croatia is jealous of Serbia's economic success. He said Milanović was bothered by the fact that this year Serbia would surpass Croatia in GDP "by a 300 to 600 million euro margin."

"Serbia has a bigger total GDP even than Luxembourg. But Croatia's and Serbia's GDPs per capita are not even close. Serbia is much closer to Albania there," said Vučić. "In terms of general development, Serbia is not at Croatia's level. Life in Croatia is better and richer than in Serbia by all parametres."

Friendly talk on Bosnia with Erdogan

Milanović spoke to the press after meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, saying they had a friendly talk on Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"What I say in public, I say at such meetings," he said, adding that Turkey's foreign and defence ministers were also at the "quite open and very pleasant" meeting.

"What I underlined to Mr Erdogan is that there is no one in Croatia who will throw around stories that Mostar and Herzegovina will separate, which we hear from some others about some other parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina. And that's not smart nor necessary. In Croatia, no one advocates such a policy and such outcomes nor thinks that," Milanović said.

While in New York, he was to have met with UN Secretary-General Antonio Gutteres, but the meeting was cancelled because Milanović had more important commitments.

That wasn't even supposed to be a meeting but a photo op and a five-minute talk, Milanović said. "At that moment, I assessed that I had something more productive, an informal meeting concerning the region, state business."

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March the 29th, 2021 - The World Happiness Report on Croatia and its details has been met with a few raised eyebrows. When talking about various lists and surveys, Croatia unfortunately doesn't tend to fare very well. Just how the country managed to jump from an unenviable 75th place to 23rd on the UN's The World Happiness Report is something baffling quite a few.

As Novac/Marina Klepo writes, Croatia hasn't been able to boast about its excellent ranking on any of the numerous charts of happiness and the like, but during the year of the coronavirus pandemic, it seems, it has experienced real providence. The ninth UN report The World Happiness Report, conducted by external experts (including John F. Halliwell, Richard Layard and Jeffrey D. Sachs), shows that among 95 countries, Croatia ranked 23rd last year, and in the period 2017- 2019, it was in a far less desirable 61st place.

In the previous report, from back in pre-pandemic 2019, which had a wider scope and included 156 countries, Croatia came in 75th place. This information, which points to a "rush of happiness" in 2020, seems so unreal that even well known news anchor Zoran Sprajc used it on RTL Direct only to point out, in his typical style, just how ridiculous these indicators can be.

Precisely what raised Croatia on this UN scale of happiness in just one single year, and during a year which was so difficult for the whole world? In an extensive survey based on the Gallup poll, last year brought a change in that questions were asked over the phone instead of face-to-face (previously discussed in three-quarters of countries). While this is a reason for caution in interpreting these latest results, the authors believe it didn't affect the overall ranking of countries because telephone surveys are very much the norm in most countries, pandemic or not.

The results of the questionnaire, which relate to the assessment of life, its positive (laughter and pleasure) and negative (anxiety, sadness) ingredients, indicate that at the top are those countries that have dropped the frequency of negative emotions the most. Although the report does not explain why the perception of happiness in Croatia has changed more than in any other country, the numbers show that there were significantly more positive and significantly fewer negative emotions, despite the pandemic and earthquake. One can only assume that it was these events that changed life’s priorities and preferences a bit, in line with the definition that happiness means having something to lose.

A previous World Happiness Report on Croatia, in which Croatia's residents were still very much on the unhappy side of life, showed that almost all comparable countries, including neighbouring Serbia and Montenegro, were better placed. Croatia's frustrated residents cited corruption and injustice and the feeling that they didn't have enough choices as the most common reasons for their sense of general dissatisfaction.

When it comes to the latest World Happiness Report on Croatia and the devastating impact of the ongoing coronavirus crisis on the overall well-being of individuals, the country is again not doing all that well. The index, which includes three variables - life expectancy, rising unemployment and mortality from SARS-CoV-2 - fell in all countries except for Egypt, China and Taiwan, which maintained the same levels respectively. On that scale, Croatia took 57th place.

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