President Milanović: On Day One after My Victory, I’ll Invite Plenković to Pantovčak to Discuss National Security and Defense
“I started this term in a very good mood for cooperation. What did I experience before I even managed to utter my first sentence to the Prime Minister? That this would be a tough cohabitation. What does that mean? I tried to work, to cooperate. For three years, I’ve been calling for constitutional bodies to meet to discuss issues that are important for national security, which must not be discussed publicly. These calls have been ignored… while top military officers are summoned to participate in political skirmishes in parliament. This must be firmly opposed,” the President of the Republic Zoran Milanović said Tuesday evening in an interview with the main news programme of Croatian Radiotelevision (HRT), Dnevnik.
“On the first day after my victory, maybe even before the oath, I will invite Plenković to Pantovčak to continue discussions on national security and defense issues,” the President said.
When asked whether there was a chance that the hard cohabitation might soften if he won the presidential election, President Milanović replied: “Defense – I am the Commander in Chief – international relations, the so-called diplomacy, and the security system of the Republic of Croatia are my constitutional powers. In some areas, I am even above the Prime Minister and the Government. Therefore, I expect dialogue and cooperation, and I have been offering that all along. I am not interested in public procurement; I am not interested in ECMO machines. I am not interested in the realm of money, power, and influence that HDZ controls – someone once said, like an octopus. Perhaps the metaphor is a bit overused, but I think it’s clear. I am not part of that.”
President Milanović also commented on the decision of Attorney General Ivan Turudić that the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) does not have jurisdiction over the investigation of former Minister Beroš and that the investigation will be conducted by the Office for the Suppression of Corruption and Organised Crime (USKOK).
“This case was stolen, it was taken away from the EPPO,” he said, and further explained: “First of all, I have a problem with the fact that the Croatian state even needs an external judicial body and is unable to rid itself of HDZ’s corruption, which is the root of that corruption. And then, if that corruption exists, we should deal with it ourselves. Clearly, we are not, and as long as that remains the case, we need some kind of judicial crutch, which is the EPPO, where Croatian prosecutors work under the hierarchy of some figure in Brussels. I would prefer if there were no EPPO and that the State Attorney’s Office (DORH) handled all of this instead. The DORH, under Turudić’s leadership – whom Plenković brutally imposed, with some obediently raising their hands in support – is the reality. Until that reality becomes a distant memory, I won’t tire.”
Commenting on the Beroš affair, in the context of the same question, President Milanović further said: “Let’s not make it a golden calf or a sacred cow. It’s an investigative body doing its job. The principle of procedural opportunity says that anyone reasonable and responsible would hand this over to the EPPO if there was even a minimal level of trust. Don’t engage in a jurisdictional dispute, but say, ‘You’re handling it? Fine, we lack the personnel and resources anyway. Continue your work.’ This is concealment.”
President Milanović, among other things, responded to the remark that he has not been speaking out often lately. “As for my silence, if it weren’t for me, the Croatian public would not know what Turudić was doing at night, in cars, on the streets of Zagreb – meeting with people under investigation while serving as the President of the County Court. That is what I spoke about. I don’t feel the need to shout, scream, or accuse everyone. Perhaps I did that too much in the past. But I will not descend into this kind of quagmire and bickering,” said the President.
What has been your best presidential move in the past five years, and what has been your biggest failure, the President was asked. “You can save that for Potjera or some other quiz show, or a reality programme. A question like that is answered the same way as being asked to describe yourself in one word. ‘Beware the man of one book’ and the man who fits into one word,” said President Milanović in an interview with Croatian Radiotelevision.