President Milanović Attends 125th Anniversary Celebration of Volunteer Fire Department Martijanec
The President of the Republic Zoran Milanović attended the 125th anniversary celebration of the founding of the Volunteer Fire Department Martijanec in Varaždin County, which was held under his auspices. In his address he highlighted the importance of volunteer firefighting.
“I was pleased to accept the patronage, I congratulate you on 125 years of organized, persistent and hard work that is difficult to grasp elsewhere. City people haven’t the faintest idea of the hard work and sacrifices that volunteer firefighters make in order to make sure that people are safe. I don’t know of any other security service on which life and safety depend, which the state has decentralized and given up to volunteers. This isn’t the case with the police, emergency services, yet alone the army and the courts”, President Milanović noted.
The President of the Republic remarked that it would be a good thing if every part of Croatia had a well-organized volunteer fire department such as VFD Martijanec. He called to mind a personal experience of the early 1990s when his car got stuck in the snow in Austria. He realized how much volunteer firefighters help when it’s necessary. He compared the organization of VFD Martijanec with their Austrian colleagues and concluded: “As a state and as a society we have to measures ourselves with the best, that’s the only way forward”.
Prior to that event President Milanović attended the promotion of autochthonous and traditional products of Varaždin County in Varaždin, and his host was Varaždin County Prefect Radimir Čačić. “Varaždin County is doing a great job at branding its products”, he said on the occasion, adding that he especially liked the farmer’s cake “because it’s from the folk, and buckwheat is an excellent grain”. Asked by reporters whether he is participating in the election campaign, President Milanović repeated that he goes where he is invited and was in Crikvenica on Friday whose mayor is a candidate of the HDZ.
Accompanying President Milanović in Varaždin and the Municipality of Martijanec was the Adviser of the President for Human Rights and Civil Society Melita Mulić.
PHOTO: Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia / Filip Glas