President Milanović on demographics: More people can live in Croatia, but they won’t be our children, but people who will be foreigners to us
“This space, climate, soil and infrastructure opportunities could accommodate ten million people, but what people? Following the example of western states that have completely opened their borders – inviting everyone even when they can’t accept them – thereby changing the structure of society”, the President of the Republic Zoran Milanović said today when speaking about demographics in Croatia on the occasion of Municipal Day of Lokve in Gorski Kotar.
He underlined that demographics are “a topic for deep and quick thinking”. “There are fewer than four million of us. These are our people, mostly Croats and Serbs, similar people, of the same faith, customs, and language. Are we going to strive for six million? But, I guarantee that those will not be our children. Those will be people who will be foreigners to us. Dear people, maybe even better than we are, but we don’t know them. This is our country, to which people are very much attached, traditional and conservative, not in the political sense of the word, but simply in the fact that they are accustomed to one way of life and that it will be difficult to change it. That is the greatest treasure we have,” President Milanović noted.
Recalling the time when as a boy he saw Lokvarsko lake for the first time, he underlined that he wants the view of Lokve and Lokvarsko lake to stay as it was fifty years ago. “Croatia has its capacities, it can accommodate more people, but it can live normally even with this number of people. When we stop calling ourselves out and complaining about how we are few and how we are disappearing, at that moment we will realise that we are as strong as we should be, then we will concentrate on ourselves and our interests, as a state, as a political community, while trying to remain human. It’s not easy, but it’s not that we don’t have a chance”, President Milanović said in concluding his address.
Speaking in addition to President Milanović at the special session were the President of the Municipal Council of Lokve Sandra Okanović, the Head of the Municipality of Lokve Toni Štimac, the Head of the Municipality of Mrkopalj, Josip Brozović on behalf of the coordination of Heads of Muncipalities and Mayors of Gorski Kotar, Primorje-Gorski Kotar County Prefect Zlatko Komadina as well as Members of the Croatian Parliament Peđa Grbin and Tomislav Klarić.
Alongside President Milanović was the Adviser to the President for Human Rights and Civil Society.
PHOTO: Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia / Ana Marija Katić