President Milanović: It’s Dangerous when the Prime Minister Steers an Ongoing Investigation by the State Attorney’s Office

The President of the Republic Zoran Milanović visited the HS Produkt Company in Karlovac where he held talks with company owners and executives, and toured production facilities. After the tour, the President stated that the plant is an example of the development of a company that doesn’t have a huge turnover, but does have huge profits. In thirty years of operation it has become a brand that everyone in this line of business is familiar with.

Asked by the press whether he feels that the Croatian army and police should be fully equipped with HS Produkt products, President Milanović replied: “This is already the case. Even though there are still old weapons, everything new is ours, a Croatian product. The Honourary and Protection Battalion was equipped with HS assault rifles on Croatian Army Day. In Europe only a few countries have their own production. This is a very successful company. I recall my talks of some thirty years ago with experts who explained to me that the development of something like this in Croatia is impossible and indeed it seemed so. The owners and managers here thought outside the box and that is how a success story is told. I regret that such a success story is an exception”, the President noted.

The President of the Republic commented on the wind park affair and the arrest of Josipa Rimac: “Where do I begin without being personal. A person has been arrested who said about me not that long ago that I am not a Croat, that I do not love my people, that I am the worst Prime Minister, that I do not understand my people. Then we dished out a couple of million kunas for a monument at the Knin railway station. My government did not commission it. We financed it with a feeling of joy and patriotism. Then she brought troublemakers to Knin and now she is in custody. It is unbelievable that the state secretary in the Ministry of Public Administration has the nerve to behave like an agent for an American investment company,” he said.

Responding to a reporter’s remark that Environment and Energy Minister Tomislav Ćorić shifted the responsibility for the wind park scandal onto his government because all contracts on renewable energy sources were signed during his term of office, the President said that Ćorić was not telling the truth. “That’s not true. At the end of my government’s mandate, Minister Vrdoljak adopted some decision that was in his authority, after which a government was in power for a brief period and then came the current government which has had four and a half years to nip that in the bud, if it wasn’t feasible. This company evidently had a preferential treatment the whole time, it was in someone’s interest for it to get the status of privileged supplier, which is in accordance with the law, however at some point in time, it had to end. Did Minister Ćorić in his statement say that Minister Dobrović from the Most Party in 2016 put an end to the process related to that company and requested an estimate, and then was no longer minister? At some point this story was ended by the minister in the Orešković government and was then launched during the mandate of this government. All of this can be looked into. A government that has good intentions nips it in the bud already in 2016. This is a high government official, and it is incredible what a disconnected, ridiculous story about a group of people this is. The Minister of Public Administration certainly has no connection with this. Does anyone else have, we’ll never find out,” he replied.

“If the status of privileged supplier was forced upon someone, if it was done hastily, then that is not normal. If a minister had some authority in my government and could make independent decisions at a certain level, I am not familiar with that. Yesterday I took the time to go back chronologically to 2015 and checked when, to whom and what decision was made, and what concessions were made for which company. Everything is on the internet”, Milanović said.

“At one stage wind power and wind parks were interesting to investors because the Croatian government stimulated enterprises. Entrepreneurs were given incentives to invest in this form of energy production. At some point the law said enough, and a certain someone wanted to get in through the back door, and did so persistently. As an entrepreneur, I can’t blame them, but I can blame the government. A high government official does such work for some personal benefit, is spied on and caught. I can’t believe that someone is doing that”, the President added.

He referred to yesterday’s statement by Prime Minister Plenković in which he said that he expects the State Attorney’s office and the police to investigate those who are connected to the Social Democratic Party as well, that he expects the same standards for everyone: “Here you have the statement of the Prime Minister who expects the ongoing investigation to be steered in a certain direction. It is one thing to say that an investigation should be launched because there is suspicion, yet it is something else when you pushed through your candidate for the position of State Attorney, that the investigation should be steered in a certain direction and that the same standards have to be applied for everyone. This is a call for lynching. In politics you need to have nerves. This calling is utterly stressful, especially when you are prime minister, but some people just crack under pressure and say all sorts of things. This kind of behaviour is dangerous. Gentlemen, be careful. In view of what I have stated that I will be the defender of the Constitution, the law and pure logic I had to say this”, the President of the Republic said.

President Milanović again called on citizens to go to the polls. “Vote! Necessarily, if it is possible, vote. In two months’ time I will have to stand before those people and hand out to someone the greatest award in the Croatian public life and politics, even in the economy, namely to form the government. I have to be totally neutral. I have to be above all of that”, he commented on his earlier statement that he is not sure whether he will vote. “The invitation is to vote, and after the elections, you will see whether or not I voted. You’ll check the voters’ lists and you’ll see”, he added.

With regard to the March for Life that should be held on the day before parliamentary elections, the President said: “The March for Life is an initiative that fights against abortion and is led by a woman who had previously worked for Human Rights Watch. When someone twenty years later leads the March for Life then I ask myself, where’ve you been Madam or sister”, he said and added: “Why not. I have a problem with the concept of election silence. That doesn’t mean anything. I think that lady is not a candidate on any electoral list. It’s all the same to me, the people will decide. That might bother some people and make them go to the polls and vote for someone else, otherwise they would stay home.”