Office of the President of the Republic reacts to inaccurate reports regarding today’s visit of Finnish Prime Minister

Part of the media are reporting inaccurate and malicious information that have no basis or verification whereby the President of the Republic Zoran Milanović was late for his meeting with Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin, namely that she had to wait for the President of the Republic.

The visit of the Finnish Prime Minister to the Office of the President was worked out to the last detail – from her welcome to the joint photo op – in accordance with precise, longstanding state protocol that always has been and is being implemented during such visits. All media representatives who have covered such visits could vouch for this.

The only exceptions to today’s protocol were: first, the Finnish Prime Minister was nearly half an hour late than planned in arriving (which is rare, but does happen); second, this was the only time that the guest (Finnish Prime Minister today) was not waited for by the President of the Republic in the designated position in front of the flags, as was the case for each and every single guest heretofore in the Office of the President of the Republic.

Despite her late arrival and exceptions to the protocol, the official welcome and introduction of delegations as well as the meeting were done absolutely in accordance with usual practice. To claim otherwise, especially by individuals who were not even present in the Office of the President of the Republic, simply shows the terrifying lack of interest for facts and the readiness to shame their own state institutions at any cost.