President Milanović on Compulsory Vaccination: Human freedoms were encroached upon from the start, and this requires a two-thirds majority in Parliament

“The fact is that the vaccine protects against serious disease. But you have to show people that it pays to get vaccinated, that when you get vaccinated you stop wearing a mask and start living more normally. There must be some benefit from vaccination,” the President of the Republic Zoran Milanović told the press after visiting the Ruđer Bošković Institute.

Asked whether compulsory vaccination should be introduced, President Milanović replied: “That would be hard. Things were done the wrong way from the start. I would support the Parliament certifying this in some way by a two-thirds majority. Human freedoms were encroached upon from the start and it was not a normal situation. If in an emergency situation you are manipulating and restricting human freedoms – freedoms, not rights – this requires a highly qualified decision and the approval of a representative body. And the Government could have gotten that. Maybe it can get it again, but start taking it seriously.”

Commenting on the decisions of the Civil Protection Directorate, the President warned that its crisis management team is operating within the realm of what is politically allowed. “(They do) what the bosses tell them and from day one that had nothing to do with the profession, which does not mean that some people working there are not experts, they are not allowed to show that,” concluded the President of the Republic.