\u201cIt has been a pleasure to cooperate with him for four years and in that chain of command to be Commander in Chief to Admiral Hranj who is the epitome of what I call elite. His approach to work, the quality of the work he accomplished, the education he completed with excellence. That is a modern top-class soldier. He is retiring and it\u2019s not easy to replace such individuals. Thanks to him once again\u201d, the President of the Republic Zoran Milanovi\u0107 told journalists who asked who will replace the Chief of the General Staff whose term is soon expiring. Asked whether he is discussing who will replace him with the Government, the President stated: \u201cWhen it will be decided, you\u2019ll know, it\u2019s a serious approach to the job\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Journalists asked President Milanovi\u0107 had Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovi\u0107 exaggerated when he said he was dismayed at the Chief European Prosecutor Laura K\u00f6vesi for daring to comment on his statement regarding the investigation of the European Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office (EPPO).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI said we\u2019re the only ones who care for this country, some work has to be done by the elite that will be populistic, but will not be thieves. I keep warning that every infatuation and delusion about Brussels is a double-edged sword and it will cut you at some point. Because it is a bureaucratic target and a superstructure that serves us in some way, but it must not fool us. And now AP himself has decided to stand up to it, since it concerns him. I have dilemmas about not only the European prosecutor, but about a number of usurping functions from Brussels. I have been saying this always, and Plenkovi\u0107 runs into the arms of those people. In no case when someone from Brussels spoke against the democratically elected prime minister or president, he was silent and now he\u2019s surprised when it concerns him\u201d, President Milanovi\u0107 replied, and added that the Chief European prosecutor sent the Prime Minister a very reserved message not to interfere with this investigation\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
President Zoran Milanovi\u0107 said that the EPPO has become an issue for Prime Minister Plenkovi\u0107 only because an affair that concerns him is being investigated. \u201cNow that it doesn\u2019t suit you, when you think and hoped that you finally enslaved the justice system and the State Attorney\u2019s Office, now he\u2019s dismayed. I\u2019m not surprised that he\u2019s dismayed. And when that same Brussels goes over the Slovaks, the Poles or the Hungarians with a fine-tooth comb, then Plenkovi\u0107 has not sensitivity for that. He now presents himself as a jurist, a politician and a great Croat. Who cares, dude! Did you establish it? Yes you did. Play by the rules. But for the HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union) it\u2019s harder to play by the rules than to give their heart\u201d, the President noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Asked if he has a problem with the EPPO\u2019s jurisdiction, President Milanovi\u0107 said: \u201cI have no problem, but those are matters that should be discussed. Why? Because they encroach on national sovereignty. Therefore, this is always a topic for discussion because you don\u2019t surrender and give in to anyone under any circumstances whatsoever. They don\u2019t differ much from Plenkovi\u0107, but at this moment they are playing a different role. She is a politician, she sends political messages because she wants to last. But in that situation the Croatian interest is one hundred times more important to me than what some European prosecutor thinks or the President of the European Commission who got the job in a most down-to-earth political trade\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is about Plenkovi\u0107\u201d, President Milanovi\u0107 warned, and explained that Plenkovi\u0107 has no right to talk about the EPPO\u2019s jurisdiction. \u201cThat\u2019s not your job, you should have thought about it earlier, but you didn\u2019t because you reckoned they would jam-pack you with money which you would present as your merit, which isn\u2019t true. They\u2019re asking for what\u2019s theirs now, they\u2019re right. Nobody is asking him his opinion on the EPPO\u2019s jurisdiction\u201d, he noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Journalists asked the President if it\u2019s Croatia\u2019s interest to find out whether that money was spent legally. \u201cOf course it is. They are stealing left and right, it cannot be endured any longer. Turudi\u0107 was brought to the State Attorney\u2019s Office to cover it up. And now that\u2019s driving Plenkovi\u0107 crazy\u201d, he said, and added that now Plenkovi\u0107\u2019s interests and those of the EPPO have collided. \u201cHe wanted to enslave the State Attorney\u2019s Office, and this is what he got. He will never succeed at it. The guy he pushed into the State Attorney\u2019s Office in a criminal, illegal and immoral way will never be able to do the job normally, not for one minute, because whatever he will do will be under scrutiny\u201d, President Milanovi\u0107 added, and concluded that \u201cCroatia is fatally regressing, this is a national catastrophe of epic proportions\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cIt has been a pleasure to cooperate with him for four years and in that chain of command to be Commander in Chief to Admiral Hranj who is the epitome of what I call elite. His approach to work, the quality of the work he accomplished, the education he completed with excellence. That is a modern top-class soldier. He is retiring and it\u2019s not easy to replace such individuals. Thanks to him once again\u201d, the President of the Republic Zoran Milanovi\u0107 told journalists who asked who will replace the Chief of the General Staff whose term is soon expiring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":28500,"template":"","news-cat":[12],"class_list":["post-28518","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-cat-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n