President Milanović on Fans Arrested in Greece: I expect those responsible to be identified, not everyone can be kept in custody
“We talked about this, which was finally resolved. As you have seen, it did not work without reconciling our positions and discussion. I would have liked it to be resolved at the associate level, but it didn’t work out. According to the spirit, the letter, the structure of our Constitution and order, this requires a conversation between the Prime Minister and the President, if things don’t work out otherwise,” the President of the Republic Zoran Milanović said today in Metković, in response to a reporter’s question about what he had discussed with Prime Minister Plenković at the Sinjska Alka, thereby confirming that the discussion topic was the appointment of the Director of the Military Security and Intelligence Agency (VSOA).
“We discussed that and it shows that this conversation, which the gentlemen, unfortunately, had refused the entire time, was eventually necessary. I have been calling for this conversation for months, as you know, and not out of a desire to socialize, but because of the need to solve some outstanding issues before us, to address the real challenges that regularly come before us, but they rejected this systematically. It was rejected for months,” President Milanović, who in Sinj reached agreement with Prime Minister Plenković on the appointment and assignment of officers to command staff positions in the Croatian Armed Forces, told the press.
“When we started reconciling our positions, we reached agreement, also on the nominations that had been on Minister Banožić’ desk, unfortunately, for months. Some nominations were approved and some were not, and the matter had to be resolved transparently,” the President added.
President Milanović also spoke about the situation with the Croatian fans who were arrested in Greece: “The police have the right to keep anyone in custody based on some charges for five days and those five days are now over. Regardless of why they went there – they went there to fight, I cannot support that, that behaviour is simply strange – but they are citizens, they have their rights, and if right now the Greek authorities can hold all hundred of them in some fake detention, I don’t know about that; that would have elements of a vendetta or collective responsibility. I expect those responsible to be identified very quickly, i.e. during the five days allowed by law. The circumstances of the loss of that life, the death of that man, aren’t clearest either.”
President Milanović said he had seen the letter for the Prime Minister, himself and the public from the parents of the arrested fans. “Let’s leave the parents alone, they are adults. Their parents didn’t send them there, they went alone and someone will have to answer. The five days are now nearing the end. It’s over and now they should be released, the vast majority. Not everyone is responsible,” said the President.
President Milanović also commented on the announced declaring of fair days by an increasing number of towns to bypass the ban on Sunday and holiday shopping: “I comment on this as a natural response of common sense in conflict with stupid bureaucrats, although there are stupid policies here unfortunately as well. We have been hearing this for years and now they have introduced these measures because Austria and Germany have them. They have them less and less and they are working more and more over there. I didn’t notice that they are protesting because of that. The key problem is paying those who work in the stores. Those are mostly women, who work extra hours, on Sundays and holidays. Pay them. That should be controlled and any violation should be strictly punished,” said President Milanović.