ZAGREB, August 1, 2019 – Commenting on President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović’s statement in Israel that Bosnia and Herzegovina is controlled by “militant Islam”, which she has denied, Zoran Milanović said that during trips abroad, especially to the Middle East, one should discuss such matters as little as possible, and added that he believes that this information “leaked from the Israeli president’s team.”
“In fact, they (the Israelis) should apologise to Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, and she should pick her interlocutors more carefully and watch what she says,” the Social Democratic Party’s (SDP) candidate for President of the Republic said during a visit to the northwestern town of Čakovec on Wednesday evening.
Milanović believes that the president’s statement has not done much damage, “although this is the president’s third major misunderstanding with the press in a very short time.” He said that that was “very unfair of the host, who is apparently our strategic partner, although we have declared them so, they did not declare themselves that.”
He said it was inconceivable to him that after a closed-door meeting between two presidents such things should appear in the press. “That never happens,” he stressed.
“This is the first time I see this happen. It was someone from the Israel president’s team who leaked it to the journalist, and when they saw that they caused damage and offended the guest, they tried to mend the situation a bit, but that’s not how things go,” Milanović said.
“Next time she should be careful who she is talking to. She’d better not declare everyone a strategic partner, because she told Iranians the same thing two years ago. People see that, it’s flippant, insincere and it’s not going anywhere. But the most important thing is that we don’t get into trouble because of that. Pushing to become a strategic partner to Israel, a country that is in serious trouble, a country that I support, but I don’t support the policy of its government because its policy is not the one being pursued by EU member states,” Milanović said. “We don’t want to cause a fire with an exaggerated statement because we are not a country that should be rushing to the front ranks in certain matters,” he added.
Commenting on the government’s plan to buy back the Hungarian energy group MOL’s stake in the INA oil company, Milanović said: “They made a promise no one forced them to and were aware that they would not deliver it. A realistic solution is to put pressure on the other side.”
“How did they get the 45 percent and later acquire even more shares? Which party made that possible? Now they want to clean up what they soiled 15 years ago, but nothing will come of it,” he said.
He said that this government was sympathetic to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whom he described as “a mockery of European democracy”. “He does not respect Croatia but is mocking us,” he added.
“In the 1990s Hungary was a very good ally to us. As a member of the diplomatic service at the time, I can say that they were more supportive of us than the Germans and Austrians. Things are different now,” Milanović said.
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