President Milanović on Election of European Commission President: I don’t know who she represents, but she will have great power

“One needs to be loyal, cooperative, play by the rules, but at the same time – as a country that has a position – fight to ensure that the rules, before they are adopted, are aligned with our needs and interests. We don’t get this money because someone loves us, but so they get what they need from us. It is a free market where they will sell what they want, as much as they want, without us having any influence over it. These are the rules of the game that we agreed to, no one deceived us,” said the President of the Republic Zoran Milanović in Krapinske Toplice, which he visited on the occasion of Municipality Day.

In his address at the special session of the Municipality of Krapinske Toplice Municipal Council, President Milanović commented on today’s election in the European Parliament, which by secret vote confirmed a new term for Ursula von der Leyen as President of the European Commission. “The European Union, which today elected its new five-year President as head of the Commission, is no supra-state, no substitute for Croatia, and it must not be. We must understand this and repeat it to our children because it is important to us. That is why these are just words of warning to understand that we live today in a very complicated world, an uncertain world, that there will be elections in the U.S. in a few months and that, unfortunately, these elections will greatly determine the direction of the world and the relations between countries and the biggest powers. We are small in that story,” said the President.

Regarding the re-election of the President of the European Commission, he said: “I don’t know at all who she represents, but she will have great power. It is not a democratic institution; these people are not elected by the people and they do not manage the money in the budget procedure, which is actually supported by the electorate. It is a large mass of Europeans, and in that mass we are a beautiful and large structured drop.”

He repeated that we must be aware that money from European funds will not keep coming for long, and he told the leadership of the Municipality of Krapinske Toplice that they must take every euro of that money but also warned that this will not make us a rich country. “With this money from Europe, there is no new wealth; there are no classic factors of production such as land, capital, labour, nor secondary factors to a large extent. You have some things that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford – like sewage and drainage systems, which are expensive and long-lasting, and the rest is all decor to make things more appealing and better. But there’s no money, no power, and no independence from that,” he said.

In his address, President Milanović also commented on the announced budget amendment: “We hear that the budget is lacking hundreds of millions of euros. Frankly, I think that this is not true, and that it is a trick for the purpose of daily political agreements and setting boundaries within the ruling coalition. It is simply not possible that someone went so far into the red. I don’t even want to accept that as a fact, but it again shows and reminds us where the power is and where the authority is,” said President Milanović.

He compared the revenue of the Municipality of Krapinske Toplice with the revenue of municipalities of the same size and number of inhabitants along the coast, saying that every coastal municipality, thanks to its location and the fact that it lives off tourism, has revenue that is at least three or four times greater. “That is not fair in principle. This difference is not the result of work, investment, or greater intelligence, but simply luck. Here, greater sacrifice is needed to create something, to sell it. You don’t live off annuities here,” the President pointed out.

In addition to President Milanović, speakers at the special session included Božo Ružak, President of the Krapinske Toplice Municipal Council; Gordana Jureković, Head of the Municipality of Krapinske Toplice; Rev. Marijan Gradinšćak, parish priest at the Holy Trinity Church in Krapinske Toplice; Marko Vešligaj, Mayor of Pregrada; Željko Kolar, Krapina-Zagorje County Prefect; and Siniša Hajdaš Dončić, Deputy Speaker of the Croatian Parliament and Member of Parliament.

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 / Filip Glas