President Milanović Calls upon Citizens to Go to the Polls
The President of the Republic Zoran Milanović attended the opening ceremony of the Morosini-Grimani Castle in the Municipality of Svetvinčenat and afterwards replied to reporters’ questions. The President was asked whether he watched the debate between the leaders of the two largest political parties Plenković and Bernardić. President Milanović replied: “It was tense, it was a tough fight. It’s difficult to judge who the winner is, each candidate has his audience and as far as I heard, it was tense”.
President Milanović commented on the opening of borders in light of the coronavirus spread and the parliamentary election. He doesn’t think that the decisions were hasty: “Things aren’t ideal in Croatia either. The coronavirus is an unfortunate disease, we know who gets it, who dies, who is most vulnerable, not a lot about it has changed. One has to be consistent when making decisions in this matter. I don’t know whether the coronavirus response team still has a legal basis for work”, the President stated.
In replying to a reporter’s question to comment on the fact that two judges of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia have proposed to launch a procedure to assess the constitutionality of decisions by the Civil Protection Directorate during the corona crisis, President Milanović said that he wasn’t aware of it, especially of the judges’ motives.
The President of the Republic once again called upon the citizens to go to the polls: “I don’t know how many times I have called upon people to exercise their rights. I’m not forcing down their throats that it’s their obligation, no, it is a right, and if it were an obligation, there would be sanctions. My position after the election can be very delicate, it could be banal. If the situation will be complex, everyone will look at me and wonder. I have to distance myself and be neutral. I will give the mandatary sufficient time to exhaust all the possibilities, because a new election is harmful, harmful in many aspects”, President Milanović underscored.
“This election will be questionable to a certain degree, but it doesn’t mean that it’s not legal, that it’s not legitimate, this can be said about each election. It is essential that conditions at the polling stations are favourable”, the President noted.
“Our voting system is good, it’s not perfect, what is more important is that there is confidence in the purity and legitimacy of the process. When the polling stations close and ballots are counted, that no one raises their hand and that no one has any objections. In Croatia those who lose the election practically recognize at once the election results. This is a good custom and this is good for the country. Let’s not change this voting system, no perfect system exists, but it is certain and there is public confidence that that’s that. It will not be possible for everyone to vote all the time, even if they wanted to”, Milanović noted. Regarding the use of public resources in the campaign, the President replied that it is unavoidable and that presently it is “futile to reproach Plenković for this or earlier someone else”. “If you use things for campaign purposes, people will see it. I have no basis to criticize this, the citizens will be the ones who will judge what is good, what is exaggerated. I think that it is at a normal level in Croatia. I don’t like the fact that there is more lying than ever before. There was always stretching of the truth and exaggerations in campaigns, but distorting the facts, lying, fabricating things, it was never was like before and in this sense we as a country are going backwards. They’re resorting to anything”, President Milanović stated.