President Milanović in Valpovo: The Croatian people’s greatest nightmare is when others make decisions for us
The President of the Republic Zoran Milanović attended today a special session of the Valpovo Town Council held on the occasion of marking Municipal Day.
Since a representative from Bosnia and Herzegovina, from the Municipality of Kupres, spoke before him as a guest of the special session, President Milanović underlined the importance of Kupres for the defense of Croatia in the Homeland War. “Kupres is especially important because Croatia was defended there, in another state, Bosnia and Herzegovina. We must think of our people in BiH because it’s an important topic for Croatia. We don’t want what is outside Croatia, but we want order where decisions concerning us are made, and they legally concern us under the Dayton Agreement. These are things that should be mentioned all the time, and actively undertaken, because they will be left uncontrolled, and others will decide for us. This has always been the Croatian people’s greatest nightmare,” he said.
Speaking of Croatia’s demographic challenges, President Milanović said the fear of the decreasing number of Croats has been present for many years. “History and life did not begin in 2013 when we joined the European Union. Our story is much older. But the fear that we will disappear and that there are not enough of us is something that has been with us since Strossmayer’s era. Throughout the decades, the Croatian nation has grown, in Croatia, to some five million people. If someone had told Strossmayer 150 years ago that there would be so many of us at the end of the 20th century, the man would have been overjoyed,” said the President of the Republic, adding that “we must accept the fact that there won’t be ten million of us” and that nearly all countries and nations in central and eastern Europe are in the same situation.
The President also spoke about the need to take advantage of EU funds, but also warned about the problems that Croatia could face, as a beneficiary of European money, in case of a crisis in the EU: “If the European Union finds itself in an economic crisis in a few years, it will immediately raise the question of why we are paying those who have less than us, where that money is going. We must be clear about that because it can but does not have to happen. If it doesn’t happen immediately, it will happen later because the EU, unlike the US, does not have its own energy but imports it, which makes the EU dependent. The EU also does not have the strongest and most dominant technologies on which the Americans and some from Asia earn huge amounts of money. In other words, Europe is old and has entered into a continuity of averageness. What we produce as a continent, other produce too and we soon won’t be that competitive.”
In addition to President Milanović, also speaking at the ceremony were the Mayor of Valpovo Matko Šutalo, Head of the Municipality of Kupres Zdravko Mioč, acting Osijek-Baranja County Prefect Mato Lukić, and Member of Parliament and delegate of the Speaker of the Croatian Parliament Goran Ivanović. During the special session of the Town Council, public recognitions were awarded, as well, to prominent individuals deserving credit for the town’s prosperity.
President Milanović was accompanied by Melita Mulić, Adviser to the President of the Republic for Human Rights and Civil Society.
PHOTO: Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia / Dario Andrišek