President Milanović: Everything is very expensive and pensions remain low due to the Government’s incompetence

“Everything is very expensive,” warned the President of the Republic, Zoran Milanović, today. When asked if he expects price increases in light of the Government’s reduction of measures, he said that things “will be more expensive.” He ironically commented on the Government’s position that there will be no price increases: “Then there won’t, since they always speak the truth and only the truth, and never anything else.”

Journalists were also interested in President Milanović’s opinion on whether it is time to end state intervention in the energy market: “We need to protect those who are struggling the most, and these are primarily pensioners, for whom, for some unknown reason, they never bothered to calculate a sustainable formula. The average pension remains at 40% of the salary, the same as when I was Prime Minister under much tougher conditions and circumstances. This is unjustified, unsustainable, and impossible to live on. Back then, there were justifications for it, which I didn’t seek, but at that time, pensioners weren’t protesting. They were aware of the situation and how things stood. Pensions remain this low primarily due to the Government’s incompetence, not because it’s unsolvable. Wages have grown nominally, but let’s not forget that inflation has also increased,” he said, adding that a thousand euros today does not have the same value as it did 10 years ago.

When asked by journalists, he also commented on the fact that Milorad Dodik included war criminals Karadžić and Mladić as war heroes in textbooks. “Whatever I try to fix, he messes up. Dodik is absolutely the main interlocutor for all Bosnian-Herzegovinian Croats in politics. Who else should be the interlocutor? The heirs of Mladić and Karadžić? Unfortunately, Dodik calculates too much and plays with fire unnecessarily. I always tell him to keep things calm, to ease up a bit, and not to go to Moscow because it’s stupid and he doesn’t need it, as they won’t help him,” he said.

Speaking about the political situation of the Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina, he said: “Now, Plenković has been in Bosnia and Herzegovina for two days, and he finally took a courage pill, so he said something about the Sejdić/Finci rulings and how Croats cannot elect their own member of the Presidency because political Sarajevo obstructs them. I’ve been talking about this for six years. Plenković finally got the courage to acknowledge the problem, while other countries would demand more and complain more than Croatia. The attitude of the team from the SDA and political Sarajevo towards Plenković is the same as towards me. So, as soon as he brought it up – after hiding and being scared for years – he got the same reaction as I did. Unfortunately, you can’t deal with these people nicely. I’ve tried, and I have more experience than Plenković. We need to agree on what to do for the Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina because political Sarajevo and their sponsors, like the Office of the High Representative and the U.S. Embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, don’t care about Croats; they care about who runs the secret service and how they cooperate with the Americans in combating militant Islam. That’s all they care about. If we don’t help the Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina restore their basic rights, no one will. The way Plenković and his lackeys are handling it is wrong, and in the end, it leads to where I am – on political Sarajevo’s list. We’re both on that list, only I speak clearly, but I don’t have the tools, while Plenković dodges the issue, though he has the tools,” said President Milanović.

When asked by journalists, President Milanović also commented on the opening of proceedings by the Commission for the Prevention of Conflicts of Interest regarding helicopter flights. “I am the Commander in Chief, so it will continue to be my decision. As the President of the Republic, I have a certain status according to the Croatian Constitution, and whoever becomes President after me, in five years, will have it too. This will not change, and no Commission will change that. The dignity of the office of the President of the Republic does not allow me to respond to this,” he said.

Since the weekly Nacional recently reported that Prime Minister Plenković used police boats for private purposes, journalists were interested in President Milanović’s comment. “There are no private purposes. Whatever he is, and he’s nothing, he is still the Prime Minister, and when he goes to an island in Croatia, he can go by ferry or by military ship. In both cases, there will be a police boat alongside the one he’s traveling on, and there’s no offense involved. We’ve said this many times before, only I play fair, and Plenković and his people play dirty. That’s the difference,” he pointed out.

Regarding the situation at Jadrolinija, President Milanović said: “They are guilty as sin. The Old Testament doesn’t describe a situation as guilty as theirs, and how much they protect their crony, some Sopta, instead of removing him and restructuring the company. Clearly, nothing functions there.”

President Milanović also commented on the Report of the Chief of General Staff, as well as his relationship with the Minister of Defense. “These aren’t my or Anušić’s numbers. Anušić and I never had a falling out, and I really don’t want to lose a good friend. We got along great for eight months. It was particularly inspiring to listen to him when he commented on some of his HDZ colleagues – not the Prime Minister – and all the things he said about them. All you could do was nod in agreement. However, when it comes to the functioning of the defense, it’s clear who the Commander in Chief is (that’s me), and who the party commissar is (that’s him). Our relationship was fine, but it started to resemble the one I had with Banožić, because there’s that chromosomal error in the political makeup of every HDZ member, where at some point, they have to lose it and try to take a bite out of me. If they keep at it, they’ll break their teeth. So, I call for a friendly relationship overall, especially when it comes to personnel decisions. Things started getting complicated on 31 July when HDZ’s Trojan horse on wheels decided to run for President. That’s when the problems began, and that’s when we learned about the ridiculous idea that 10 warships would land in Kupari on August 1. It’s my duty to put a stop to that,” President Milanović said in a statement to the media on Saturday in Zagreb.