President Milanović Warns: Croatia has the know-how, tradition and pride; it must not allow itself to be the EU’s welfare case
The President of the Republic Zoran Milanović participated today in a special session of the Budinščina Municipal Council. Extending his congratulations to the members of the community on the occasion of Municipality Day, he said that he has been visiting this region for 30 years and he is happy to see the changes that are taking place. He emphasized that Krapina-Zagorje County was one of the two counties that first began to recover from the deep financial crisis in 2013, and added that progress can only be made through work, investments, and production.
In his comments about EU funds, President Milanović emphasized that these funds will not make us rich and that we must not be a European welfare case. “We must strive and have the mind-set that with our ability, our intelligence, our ideas, we are creating new value and new money. European funds generally do not serve this purpose and they are not intended to serve it because those who have provided these funds, the wealthier countries, do not want Zagorje and Croatia to be their direct competitors,” he said.
“When we talk about the European Union, we must be fully aware of what is good and what is not. Examples such as your new Gerontology Centre are good. But, new euros will not be generated there, salaries will not increase, and new money will not come in. We need to constantly be aware of what the EU gives us and what we give to it, because we give a lot. So, in a way, we have given up our sovereignty to it,” he emphasized.
“We now hear the President of the European Commission saying that the EU will ban the social network TikTok throughout the Union. TikTok is a form of communication among young people, so it represents a certain freedom. Why would they ban it in Croatia, Hungary, or Poland if we don’t want it banned? I don’t know, maybe we do, maybe we don’t, but where is our say in this? So, someone from Brussels says we will ban TikTok because it’s dangerous. TikTok means nothing to me, but freedom and the right for my children to use it if they want mean something to me. And they want to ban it without consulting us. These are very profound questions of freedom and autonomy that our people, especially the people of Zagorje, value. Therefore, we must not be impressed and we must not reduce ourselves to a welfare case. We have our know-how, our tradition, our ambitions, and our human pride,” warned the President of the Republic.
Prior to the ceremony, President Milanović visited the Gerontology Centre “Zajezda” and toured the stands where local products were exhibited in the company of his host Dijana Margetić, the President of the Budinščina Municipal Council.
In addition to President Milanović and the President of the Municipal Council, the Head of the Municipality of Budinščina Radovan Hercigonja, President of the Krapina Town Council Mladen Gregurović, Krapina-Zagorje County Prefect Željko Kolar and the delegate of the Croatian Prime Minister and State Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture Zdravko Tušek also spoke at the ceremony.
President Milanović was accompanied by Melita Mulić, Adviser to the President of the Republic for Human Rights and Civil Society.
PHOTO: Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia / Marko Beljan