President Milanović: I want Zagreb to be well-run including improved enforcement of city regulations
The President of the Republic, Zoran Milanović, participated today in the ceremony of presentation of recognition award on the occasion of City of Zagreb Day. He congratulated the laureates and said that these are significant awards “that must be backed by work, knowledge and dedication”.
“Zagreb, our beloved city, is my hometown where I have spent my entire life. Zagreb is the synthesis of Croatia as a country, homeland, as a state of political Croatism, a city of Croats, Serbs and, throughout history, other nationalities. A city that has been growing for the last hundred years and growing on human contribution and human settlement. First as a strictly Kajkavian small community, then people from a wider circle began to come, then people from Lika at the beginning of the 20th century as entrepreneurs, and then Dalmatians came after the Second World War, and, in greater numbers, people from Herzegovina”, President Milanović stated, emphasizing that we now have to face and live with a city that will change in a different way.
In this regard, the President referred to foreign workers who come and live in Zagreb and do jobs that he thinks our children should do. “We have become a little spoiled. At some point, we will have to see where the line is and what jobs are not worthy of us and whether they should really be done at all costs by someone who is not from here and who comes from a distant world with their longings, fears, ambitions and abandoned homeland, because these are people just like us,” said President Milanović.
The President also sent a message to the Zagreb city government: “Above all, I want our city to be well-run, to be strictly run, but not in a regime-like, not repressive way,” he said, adding that he expects there to be more communal order, highlighting the problem of property destruction by graffiti. Furthermore, he told them to take money from European Union funds. “Try to get the last euro from those funds legally, for any purpose, because the worst thing is for that money to go to waste. That money is our money,” President Milanović told them, pointing out that we paid for the opportunity to use that money by renouncing elements of statehood that belong to the state, like all other members, especially smaller ones. “Our duty is to use these funds”, President Milanović concluded.
Addressing the gathering besides President Milanović were Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister and delegate of the Prime Minister Marko Primorac, and the mayor of Zagreb Tomislav Tomašević, who presented recognition awards to this year’s laureates on the occasion of Zagreb City Day.
This year’s winners of the City of Zagreb awards are film and theatre director, screenwriter and producer Lana Barić; academic director Krešimir Dolenčić; Prof. Nikica Gilić, PhD, sculptor Zvonimir Gračan; writer and editor Monika Herceg; writer Damir Karakaš; director Nebojša Slijepčević; senior research associate at Ruđer Bošković Institute Marina Šekutor PhD; president of the Zagreb Chamber of Trades and Crafts and owner of “GR – Trojnar Antun construction company” Antun Trojnar; Artistic organization Zagrebački solisti; Head of Nutrition Science and Healthcare for top athletes at the Croatian Olympic Committee Mimi Vurdelja; members of the Psychological Crisis Response Team; Psihomodo pop rock band and musical artist Darko Rundek.
Alongside President Milanović was the Adviser to the President for Human Rights and Civil Society Melita Mulić.
PHOTO: Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia / Filip Glas