President Milanović: State Attorney General Should Have Left Two Weeks Ago

The President of the Republic Zoran Milanović answered questions from journalists following his visit to the University of Zagreb Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture, where he commented on the position of the European Commission that EU countries should open a debate about making COVID-19 vaccinations mandatory.

“I think this is the wrong path taken by panicked and short-sighted politicians who are afraid of their shadow and their voters, if they have any at all. I am not a traditionalist and conservative, I will never be. In this attempt to control everything, I see faltering and danger. The EU does not have the competences for that and if it does, let them say what they are. And it must not have such authority. Every further step towards EU bureaucratization is a step towards dystopia. This develops slowly, but when it becomes large-scale, it’s too late. And I am not saying that these people have such intentions and want such an outcome, but their conduct paves the way for that and they have blind support for that, i.e. the obedience of Croatian politicians who don’t understand anything,” the President of the Republic told the members of the press.

Asked by journalists to comment on the proposed adoption of the law envisaging fines for institutions not complying with the COVID-19 certificate mandate, President Milanović replied: “That makes no sense. It is not based on science. I repeat – get vaccinated, get booster shots. Omicron will come and go, just as the delta variant came somewhere in the midst of vaccinations. Out of fear and insecurity, people are ready to give bits and pieces of their freedom and then all of a sudden they give an entire canvas.” The President recalled that in the beginning he did not talk that way about the measures taken by the Government, but he said that he now clearly sees what is going on. “Many European countries have succumbed and recoiled. I have an issue with fundamental human freedoms being violated without any argument on the territory of the European Union.”

The President of the Republic commented also on whether the State Attorney General should resign, following a question from a journalist. “She should have left two weeks ago. She should never have been appointed. She didn’t arrive at this position following a public call, but because of a deal with the HDZ. An unknown person who has never dealt with criminal law was installed in that post and she was then caught several times telling untruths, lies. This was a deliberate attempt to deceive the public. Given that this is a position with enormous power and authority over everyone subordinate and since there is no mechanism of control, this must be a person who enjoys a level of trust at least at the level of Dinko Cvitan – at least, if not more. This person and her team do not have anyone’s trust and this is yet another stain on the tablecloth placed by the HDZ.”

Since the report of the State Attorney’s Office showed that in the case of the investigation into the wrongdoing of former Minister Gabrijela Žalac no one did anything wrong, President Milanović described that as “cynicism”. “That’s HDZ-level cynicism, when they say they are fighting corruption, and corruption does not exist without them. Systemic corruption does not exist. So, they did nothing wrong. We have a terrible problem – public trust is zero. Instead of those people being removed, they will go as righteous people. On the contrary, they should leave like thugs – not to prison, but these are incompetent people for whom this is too difficult; it is too difficult given their knowledge and experience. They are trembling, they are afraid and no one supervises them. The simplest way is to chase them away,” he said.

The President reiterated that “the public must trust the State Attorney General,” and warned that in this case “we have another hostage crisis” behind which stands Andrej Plenković, as in the case of the Minister of Defense. “Minister Banožić should not have been appointed to his post, even more so than Ms. Hrvoj Šipek, but he is in that post and will be there as long as Plenković feels or assesses that he still has the capacity to obstruct. After Macron’s visit, he invited Admiral Robert Hranj for talks and then ‘took’ him to Banožić. He brought a man whom the public trusts, and that is Hranj, and a man whom the public has never trusted, and that is Banožić,” President Milanović revealed.

Journalists were interested in whether there was still a problem with the payment of per diems for soldiers whose payments were withheld by the Minister of Defense. “The only thing he can do at the moment is to ban the payment of per diems to soldiers who went to Vukovar as support to the Commander in Chief. I don’t have the budget for that. I can invite my friends to settle that. That is the path to destruction. What Banožić and Plenković are doing is destroying the Croatian state. According to the Constitution, the Government is obliged to support the President and no minister will decide how many members of the President’ Honorary and Protection Battalion will go to Vukovar and Škabrnja, but will simply delegate this task to a lower level and it will be implemented. Precisely so the state does not become a private lair, it is the duty of Plenković and Banožić to finance the will of Croatian citizens. I was not elected by the HDZ, but by Croats, by the citizens of this country,” said the President.

Commenting on the letter sent by the Minister of Defense to the Chief of the General Staff of the Croatian Armed Forces Admiral Robert Hranj, the President warned that the Minister of Defense actually wrote to the Chief of the General Staff that he was a fool. “That is the summary of the minister’s reply, i.e. of some criminal who wrote the letter for him. That is his response to Robert Hranj, who is Aristotle compared to him, but he is also the Chief of the General Staff. “Until Burčul is reinstated and until that leech is removed from the spine and carotid artery of Admiral Hranj, we have nothing to talk about,” he said, explaining that this was not “bickering,” as mentioned by the journalists, but the “protection of the army from bandits,” the President argued, pointing out the fact that the Minister of Defense first came into conflict with Colonel Burčul, then with Admiral Hranj and finally with the Commander in Chief.