President of the Republic after Trilateral Meeting of the Presidents of Croatia, Slovenia and Austria: Repression not the way to force people to get vaccinated

The President of the Republic Zoran Milanović attended a trilateral meeting of the heads of state of the Republic of Austria, the Republic of Slovenia and the Republic of Croatia in the Slovenian town of Kostanjevica na Krki.

After the meeting with the President of the Republic of Austria Alexander Van der Bellen and the President of the Republic of Slovenia Borut Pahor, President Milanović said that at the meeting he informed the Presidents about his working visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina and the problems faced there by the Croatian people, particularly in regard to their voting rights. “In Europe, there is something common in terms of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and that is the total absence, or very little knowledge, or great ignorance. Slovenia for its own reasons, Austria for its own, but the leading people in these countries do know a bit more. Of course, I cannot know the details, but here it concerns the right of Croatian citizens, i.e. members of the ethnic Croatian community, one of the three constituent communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, to elect their own representatives, and not for the members of other ethnic groups to be doing that,” said President Milanović.

The Western Balkans and EU enlargement were also topics of discussion at the meeting. “We agree on both the Western Balkans and North Macedonia and Albania,” the Croatian President said, adding that some things have changed. “There were elections in Bulgaria and I hope that this will relax the situation and that the young, new and somewhat economically weaker candidate, North Macedonia, will not have problems and impossible conditions imposed, which enter the intimate space of a nation. What no one in Croatia questions is the right of some nations, which are young and new, even by name, to call themselves by their name and to call their language how they want. I think that our Macedonian friends should not be denied this basic, fundamental human right by anyone,” the President added.

Furthermore, President Milanović commented on the pandemic, which was also discussed at the meeting between the three Presidents. “More than half a year ago, when it became clear that the vaccine was a fact, that it would be available in huge doses, I said something I thought would go in that direction and I still have the same opinion: When the moment comes in which there are more vaccines available than there are interested people, the game is over,” said the President, underscoring that what is now being done makes no sense. “If you’re vaccinated, I don’t see the point in these masks either. If you’re not, that’s another matter. You are not protecting me, you are protecting yourself,” he pointed out. “I said at the meeting that the best message to the public is that if you are vaccinated, your life will not be miserable anymore and you will live without the mask. Otherwise, all this is pointless. Repression is not the way to force or encourage people to get vaccinated. It will take time and patience. It cannot be an argument that if you have not been vaccinated you are burdening the health system, because that health system accepts you even if you are an alcoholic, if you smoke. It accepts you because it is a social system, it accepts you if you get sick from corona, the flu, because you put money into it all those years so you have the right to get sick. Those who are vaccinated – that’s soon the majority – they’ll live normally and those who are not, I can’t say I understand them, but I don’t want them to be oppressed,” President Milanović emphasized.

“The professions that should be vaccinated include medical staff and those caring for the elderly. It’s a sort of requirement that comes with the job and it applies to a small number of people. For a large number of people, the vast majority of people, it does not apply,” said President Milanović when asked if he discussed and exchanged experiences with his counterparts on how to encourage people to get vaccinated. He recalled that we found ourselves in a situation that is not a state of war or an imminent danger of war, but it is an emergency. It should be constitutionally established as such and decisions of a restrictive nature in relation to human rights and freedoms should be made in accordance with that, the President added. “We did not do that. I don’t know why we still have a whole hierarchy of legal and administrative acts that are legally weak. You shouldn’t encroach on human rights and freedoms. The administrative policies that had been adopted for more than a year now restrict basic human rights and in most countries these were not accompanied by appropriate acts from the top and, specifically, qualified decisions of representative bodies. If that were the case, and it could have been so, now we would not even be asking some of these questions,” President Milanović asserted.

When asked by journalists about Croatia’s position on the construction of the second block of the Krško NPP, President Milanović said that there are one and a half million people in its immediate vicinity in Croatia. “At first thought, I would rather not have a nuclear power plant. I would rather have the potential for renewable energy from water, which would help Croatia to be above the average of what the EU considers desirable. In an ideal world, I would rather not have a nuclear power plant that I looked at from my parents’ house on the Sutla River for thirty years. But it is there, it is a reality, it is also 50% Croatian-owned. What Slovenia will do next, I will not say that it is only their business, but it is above all their sovereign decision and I am confident that if they decide to build it, they will build something of the highest quality, as it was done then. I am sure that their approach will be of the highest standards,” said President Milanović, adding that no nation is more dedicated to nature and to spending time in nature. “Therefore, I am sure that the Slovenes will not make the wrong decision,” the President underlined.

This year’s trilateral meeting of the Presidents of Croatia, Slovenia and Austria was the sixth such meeting and the second in which the President of the Republic Zoran Milanović participated. Alongside President Milanović at the meeting were Ambassador of the Republic of Croatia to the Republic of Slovenia Boris Grigić, Head of the Cabinet of the President of the Republic of Croatia Bartol Šimunić and Adviser to the President of the Republic of Croatia for Foreign and European Policy Neven Pelicarić.

PHOTO: Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia / Filip Glas