ZAGREB, June 23, 2020 – Peasant Party (HSS) leader Kreso Beljak said on Tuesday that Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic should self-isolate considering his recent contact with Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic, who has confirmed that he is positive to the coronavirus.
“Plenkovic HAS TO go into self-isolation! Immediately,” Beljak said on Twitter.
The head of the GLAS party, Anka Mrak-Taritas, also tweeted that Plenkovic would have immediately gone into self-isolation if he was a “responsible leader who cared for the safety of citizens as he presents himself on his campaign posters.”
Former leader of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) Jadranka Kosor too believes that Penkovic should immediately self-isolate, as does an independent member of the Zagreb City Assembly, Renato Petek, who tweeted in response to Djokovic’s news, “And Plenkovic, nothing! Special immunity for a leader of a safe country.”
Leader of the Human Shield party Vilibor Sincic wondered on his Facebook profile whether some people were untouchable after all.
“Today I attended a trial against Dragutin Hanzek, who was fined HRK 8,000 for violating self-isolation rules. Do other rules apply to Plenkovic or is he going into self-isolation? Sincic wrote.
Earlier in the day the head of the Croatian Institute for Public Health Krunoslav Capak said that the epidemiological situation would be further complicated if Djokovic were to test positive for the coronavirus because he was in close contact with a lot of people who would have to go into self-isolation.
Asked whether Pllenkovic would have to go into self-isolation given his contact with Djokovic, Capak said that according to epidemiological standards there was no physical contact between them but that they only touched fists which, he claimed is not considered to be a close contact because their encounter in closed premises lasted for less than three minutes.
“If Djokovic proves positive the prime minister does not have to go into self-isolation but he was tested as a precaution and his test was negative,” Capak said.
As for his meeting with Serbian player Novak Djokovic, Plenkovic said earlier in the day: “We said hello. I thanked him for the tournament taking place in Zadar, we took photos and went our ways. I think there is nothing to fear.”
After hearing that Djokovic had tested positive, Plenkovic said that he was aware that the Social Democratic Party (SDP) would like for their leader Davor Bernardic to avoid an election debate and that now they wanted to get rid of him by putting him in self-isolation. “But’s that’s not gonna happen,” he said.
