Politics

ZAGREB, 11 Sept, 2021 - Social Democratic Party president Peđa Grbin said on Saturday he felt stupid because of SDP member Stjepan Kovač, who made up threats over which Grbin comforted him, but would not talk about his future in the party until he talked to him. Grbin was responding to reporters who asked if Kovač would be punished by the party or even ousted after being arrested yesterday on suspicion of having staged death threats. Grbin said he expected to have an answer in five to six days, adding that anyone who committed a crime must be held to account, regardless of which party…

ZAGREB, 11 Sept, 2021 - Interior Minister Davor Božinović on Saturday criticised statements by some Opposition MPs following arrests in two corruption cases in Međimurje County.  "I am certain that already the present and the future will prove their cheap political statements wrong. They seem not to want such cases to be prosecuted," Božinović said in an interview with Croatian Radio. Speaking after the arrests of Međimurje County head Matija Posavec and Social Democrat (SDP) MP Stjepan Kovač, MP Nikola Grmoja of the Bridge party said on Friday that the arrests were politically motivated to "divert attention from the scandal in…

ZAGREB, 11 Sept, 2021 - Međimurje County head Matija Posavec and the chairman of the management board of the County Road Directorate, Josip Kobal, have been granted a pre-trial release after being questioned by USKOK corruption investigators. USKOK has said it has opened an investigation into six suspects in two separate cases, requesting investigative custody for only two suspects. Lawyer Davorin Zalatarek confirmed to Hina on Saturday morning that his client Posavec had been released last night and that another suspect, SDP MP and former Čakovec Mayor Stjepan Kovač, was expected to be released soon. He said he could not…

ZAGREB, 10 Sept 2021 - President Zoran Milanović said on Friday that the media frenzy over COVID-19 was grating on people's nerves and that things should start going back to normal. "We should know the aim of all this frenzy. If anybody tells me that the aim is to completely eradicate coronavirus, I will tell them that this is insane. It is impossible. What matters now is adjustment and resumption of normal life," Milanović told the press in his office. The story with coronavirus will be over the moment we have more vaccinated people than those who are not vaccinated, he said. "The media frenzy over coronavirus…

ZAGREB, 10 Sept 2021- Labelling products made with imported raw materials 'local' is perfidious manipulation of consumers, European Parliament member Biljana Borzan said on Friday, after her amendments for more transparent labelling of products in the EU were adopted by the competent EP committees. The EP committees on environment, public health and food safety and on agriculture and rural development on Friday stated their position on the European Commission's proposal for the From Farm to Fork strategy and adopted amendments put forward by Borzan, a Croatian Social Democrat who is the Socialists' rapporteur on the strategy. Borzan asked in her amendments that…

ZAGREB, 10 Sept 2021 - The European Commission and euro area Member States on Friday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Croatia outlining the practical steps that will allow the country to begin producing euro coins when it receives the go ahead to join the euro area. The memorandum, signed in Brdo pri Kranju, Slovenia, regulates issues related to the necessary preparations ahead of and up to the actual minting of euro coins, including the acquisition and production of minting tools and coin test runs. The MoU was signed by Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis, European Commissioner for Economy Paolo Gentiloni, President…

ZAGREB, 10 Sept 2021- Montenegrin President Milo Đukanović is coming for an official visit to Croatia next week at the invitation of his Croatian counterpart Zoran Milanović.  Đukanović is due to arrive in Zagreb on Wednesday, 16 September and meet with Milanović, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković, Hina learned unofficially from the President's Office on Friday. The visit comes following the inauguration of Serbian Orthodox Church Metropolitan Joanikije in the Montenegrin historical capital Cetinje earlier this month, which sparked protests by several thousand people who blocked the access roads to the city for two days. Seven…

ZAGREB, 10 Sept 2021 - National police director Nikola Milina said on Friday that a major anti-corruption operation launched in the northern region of Međimurje on Friday morning by police and the USKOK anti-corruption agency referred to six persons, without saying if one of them is Međimurje County head Matija Posavec. "The operation refers to six people," Milina said when asked by reporters if Posavec was arrested. Milina explained that the persons in question were suspected of corruption. He stressed that major efforts had been invested to fight corruption and that in the first eight months of 2021, 682 crimes of…

ZAGREB, 10 Sept 2021 - The parliamentary Judiciary Committee will vote at a later date on candidates for the Supreme Court president due to a dispute over disciplinary proceedings launched before the State Judicial Council (DSV) against President Zoran Milanović's candidate for the post, Judge Radovan Dobronić. After five candidates presented their programmes and answered questions from members of the Judiciary Committee for seven hours on Thursday, Committee members decided to postpone the vote at the proposal of MP Krunoslav Katičić of the ruling HDZ party, who said that before taking the vote the Committee should have all information regarding…

September the 10th, 2021 - Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic has touched on what might be the situation with the country's epidemiological measures next week as cases of infection in Croatia continue to rise. Croatia has just been ''painted'' red on the latest update of the ECDC coronavirus map, and while the tourist season has gone remarkably well and the country continues to record excellent numbers as we head into the post-season and then into autumn, some believe an extension of the current measures, at the very least, should occur. As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic said that, as things…