President Milanović calls for transparency in spending public money: Nothing discourages people more than corruption and dishonesty
The President of the Republic Zoran Milanović attended this evening a special session of the City Council of Rijeka on which occasion he congratulated the residents of Rijeka on City Day and the Feast of Saint Vitus. He told City officials to continue working and developing what has been achieved in the past thirty years.
“Thirty years of Croatian self-government with the model we have, thirty years in which hundreds of municipalities began to be abolished soon after they were founded, but this system is actually working”, President Milanović told Rijeka City officials and called on them to be transparent in spending public money because, as he noted, “nothing irritates and discourages people more than corruption and dishonesty in governing”.
He further noted in his address that today too he would be in favour of Croatia joining the European Union, as he was ten years ago, adding that he is neither thrilled nor enthusiastic. “There are many issues that must be discussed and that must be taken into consideration. We must not allow that in that big community, as a small people and a small community, we should be just statistical data and nothing more. It’s not simple”, the President stated and called for caution and skepticism about everything that is not known enough.
The words of Archbishop Uzinić, who took the floor prior to him, prompted him to think about the European Union, Rijeka and the feast being celebrated today in Rijeka, the feast of Saint Vitus. In this sense, President Milanović reminded of the project of the European constitution that failed twenty years ago. “The European constitution failed because the people rejected it. And the main point of contention at the time was in the preamble; one side had proposed that it should specify that the European cultural heritage is Christian. However, opposition to it was ideologized”, the President noted.
“That was Europe then and Europe today. A Europe in which we must consider that we are nonetheless a small nation and a people within something quite large, something in which we have to give our utmost as to better understand yet not get carried away that that is the ideal path. The Croatian state was created and that is the basis and the foundation. Not for somebody else but for us”, President Milanović stated in concluding his address.
Speaking at the ceremony held in the Croatian National Theatre Ivan Zajc besides President Milanović were City Council president Ana Trošelj, the mayor of Rijeka Marko Filipović, and Archbishop and Metropolitan of Rijeka Msgr. Mate Uzinić. Annual awards were presented to deserving individuals for their contribution to the development of the city.
Alongside President Milanović was the Commissioner for Sports of the President Željko Jovanović.
PHOTO: Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia / Filip Glas