President Milanović: National Security Council Should Convene

After paying a visit to the Knowledge Center of Međimurje County, the President of the Republic Zoran Milanović delivered press statements, at the beginning of which he again posed a question to the Prime Minister: “With what words and gestures and with what content in 2016 did I – let me quote him – ‘sprinkle and sow the seeds of hatred and aggression’. I will ask him that tomorrow,” said President Milanović.

Asked to comment on the Prime Minister’s claim that he is ‘relativizing’, i.e. downplaying the role of the President of the Republic with his actions and statements, the President said: “Everything is relative, Einstein understood that as well. I don’t know what it means to relativize, that’s vocabulary from Plenković’s dissertation.” He added that this was not a row: “On the day of the attack on the Croatian Government building, I called the Prime Minister, offered cooperation and said publicly what I thought. I agreed with him that a session of the National Security Council is not needed, only for him to accuse me of sowing hatred the next day in Brussels.”

Reporters also asked the President to comment on the Prime Minister’s accusation that he was downplaying last week’s attack on the Croatian Government building: “Who said publicly that the Government building should be protected, is that downplaying of the attack,” asked President Milanović, adding that his wife “passed by the Government building two minutes before the shooting. I didn’t say that a few days ago. Or is he perhaps downplaying the office of the Prime Minister, given that he knows nothing, follows nothing, decides on nothing. But now I see that decisions are being made, I see that meetings are being called at which DORH (State Attorney’s Office) is also present, messages about arrests are being sent,” said the President.

President Milanović said that he saw the video of the attack immediately and that is why he was surprised by what the Prime Minister was saying: “It was an attack on police officers. There are elements of terrorism, but on the other hand, it was a lone assailant whose behaviour was to a great extent unusual. That has nothing to do with well-organized plotting,” said the President. Asked whether the video of the attack should have been released publicly, President Milanović responded affirmatively: “It is always done that way. To date Croatia has always been a peaceful country and this is somewhere on the verge of terrorism. The DORH will decide on the category of the offence; putting pressure on DORH is out of the question,” he said.

When asked by reporters whether and when a session of the National Security Council would be held, President Milanović said: “I want a session of the National Security Council, but as the law prescribes, and not as a public relations parade at which half of the participants are HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union) members. Ask the Prime Minister that, ask what I said in 2016 – otherwise he is not telling the truth. I do not stand in the way of the functioning of the law. Everything is relative except for the Croatian state and its security; I offered to write a draft for him on that topic. I am not protecting anything here, let alone my position,” the President added.

President Milanović also commented on criticism coming from the Prime Minister that he was not as vocal in the Josipa Rimac case, compared with the Janaf case. “I will start behaving like a village teacher. Why wasn’t I as vocal? What was I supposed to be vocal about? Those are his people, not mine. Speaking of vague communication, let him say clearly what he meant when he said that in 2016 I let the evil spirit out of the bottle. “I think that they let the evil spirit out of the demijohn in 2012 and that he entered the European Parliament on the wings of that evil spirit and later became the head of the political party,” said the President.

“I am not aggressive. Poor man. Ask him what I mean by that. Did I hand out jobs in Janaf or have lawyer contracts? What kind of allusion is that? Let Plenković explain what he is referring to, and let him tell us what I was saying in the 2016 campaign and how that fits into the definition of hatred. I see that changes to the Telecommunications Act are in the works. That should have been done a long time ago and in that sense I extend my support to the Government, but we will follow the law amendment procedure with great scrutiny,” said President Milanović.

Reporters asked the President to comment on the Prime Minister’s statement that he could call him a 54-year-old ‘brat’: “It doesn’t offend me. I am three years older than him, much more experienced; I offer him cooperation on the day of the attack, on the day after the attack, and then he goes to Brussels and behaves very irresponsibly. He tried to present himself as a victim of an attack about which we do not yet have any key information. My wife was the one who was closest (to the attack). What does he mean, what kind of evidence is that, Plenković was not at work then,” he said.

Asked whether the public is becoming annoyed by the communication between the Prime Minister and the President of the Republic, President Milanović said that the question should be posed to the Croatian public: “There are epithets that are uncreative, semi street-talk and epithets that relate to women one day and to men the other. ‘Keeners’ – that’s joking. A ‘brat’ is when you don’t know your language and can’t think of anything better to say. That’s what they used to call us at school,” said President Milanović.

Asked why he doesn’t support the Three Seas Initiative, the President replied that he believes it is unnecessary for Croatia and potentially harmful, because Croatia could be resented by others. “I hear that Plenković will participate in this conference instead of me. I hear that Croatia will pay €20 million into a joint fund. That’s a lot of money. If from these funds, which don’t exist, we get money for carpentry for this complex, I’ll be surprised. We won’t get anything because there isn’t anything,” President Milanović said, adding that the Three Seas Initiative annoys both Germany and Russia. What’s in it for Croatia? I am against Croatia giving one cent for this Initiative, before we see clearly how, what and when,” said President Milanović, explaining that the Initiative would force Croatia to buy U.S. liquefied gas.