President Milanović: The Prime Minister is openly violating the Constitution and refusing cooperation on matters he has the obligation to cooperate on

The President of the Republic Zoran Milanović commented on Thursday on the arrest of HDZ Vukovar-Srijem County Prefect Damir Dekanić, who was apprehended over irregularities in a traffic accident in which he was involved last year, saying that what happened goes “to the top.” During a press conference after his meeting with the Chairwoman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Željka Cvijanović, the President asserted that “what happened in Vinkovci with this county prefect goes all the way to the top.”

“Does the law recognize a procedure by which you get drunk, go wild in your car… knock down a fence, hit another car and then falsify a report? Does the law recognize that? Or, do the political party’s regulations recognize that?,” commented President Milanović.

“I was Prime Minister, so to say that the Prime Minister has nothing to do with a county head who got drunk, caused a major traffic accident and covered it up for a year is just fairy tales. That’s the problem… It amounts to destroying the state,” said the President.

Commenting on the request by the parliamentary Committee on National Security, where the ruling HDZ has a majority of seats, for President Milanović to support the candidate for the post of Director of the Military Security Intelligence Agency (VSOA) proposed by Defence Minister Mario Banožić, President Milanović said: “I will never support him because he is being forced on me.”

After saying that he was being “invited to support a companion of the guy who is knocking down fences drunk,” the President asked how the Committee even knew who that was, since that person did not undergo a hearing at the Committee yet, which must first give its opinion. “It’s all turned upside down. You are inviting me to give my signature and put my trust in a person who did not even stand before the Committee yet. A legal procedure exists,” said President Milanović.

President Milanović again accused Prime Minister Plenković of “openly violating the Constitution.” “I have been proposing for a year that the National Security Council should meet, and the Prime Minister has been openly violating the Constitution and refusing cooperation on matters he has the obligation to cooperate on under the Constitution,” the President of the Republic said. (HINA)