President Milanović Discusses Geopolitics and Economic Consequences with Students from Split

“The economic indicators for Croatia for the short term are not bad. I say this as the President of the Republic, not as the Government’s competitor, and as someone who genuinely cares that our story succeeds. What happens to this country matters only to us. For others it is either not important or they don’t really care. Economic success will determine whether this demographic “Armageddon” will continue, in which we have lost a million people in the last 30 years, which is not only a consequence of the war and Operation Storm. Croatia’s economic success is equal to Croatian strength. Without money there is nothing, no independence, no weapons, no way to defend your home, be it a house or a country,” the President of the Republic Zoran Milanović told students at the University of Split, where he held a lecture entitled “Geopolitics and economic consequences.”

Commenting on economic growth trends in Croatia this year, which “will be good,” President Milanović said that tourism, a rentier economy, contributes to this growth, but he warned that “we are terribly dependent on tourism and that is not good.” According to President Milanović, the economic outlook in the period ahead will also depend on the geopolitical situation in the world. “What’s next? This depends exclusively on the scenarios in Ukraine, on whether the Americans and Russians will sit down together,” the President said, explaining that “what we have been witnessing in recent months is geopolitics.”

“Anyone who associates geopolitics with BiH or Kosovo does not know what geopolitics is. What was happening in our region was a terrible, bloody divorce in which some fared better while others, like us Croats, the Croatian state, fared worse. Geopolitics is exclusively Russia and China, and that spills over onto all of us,” President Milanović said in his lecture to the students, and concluded that Croatia must take care of itself because “if you don’t take care of yourself, not even God will help you, and the present times demonstrate this in a frightening way.”

After his lecture, President Milanović took questions from students. Special Adviser to the President of the Republic for the Economy Velibor Mačkić was alongside President Milanović. 

PHOTO: Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia / Marko Beljan