ZAGREB, February 24, 2019 – Prime Minister and HDZ president Andrej Plenković said on Saturday the party’s slate for the European Parliament elections would be ready by the end of March and that the HDZ would score a convincing victory as the candidates would be very competent and convincing.
He was responding to questions from the press in Gospić.
As for new legislative solutions concerning loans pegged to the Swiss franc and announcements of protests, he said banks, interested associations and the Finance Ministry were continually talking about the matter.
He also commented on the case of Frane Lučić, the only survivor of a 2007 tragedy in which 12 of his fellow firefighters were killed. Lučić has won a lawsuit against the town of Šibenik and the Republic of Croatia, which are to pay him 1.75 million kuna in damages, but the Šibenik prosecutor’s office has appealed.
Plenković said he had discussed the case with the minister of justice and that he wanted an equitable settlement and equitable satisfaction.
Plenković also said on Saturday that no political party in Croatia’s history had done more for Croatia’s sovereignty, independence and freedom than the HDZ.
“No one else either had the opportunity or pushed so much for Croatia’s strong position on the international scene,” Plenković said in Ogulin at a ceremony marking the 29th anniversary of the HDZ’s Karlovac County branch.
He said Croatia and all of Europe were in a complex international context, and that the HDZ’s rivals on the far right in the upcoming European Parliament elections, by “preaching sovereignism,” were targeting HDZ voters. Their concept of sovereignism is about 30 years old and shows their ignorance of the present and Croatia’s position, he added.
Plenković said that when it joined the European Union, Croatia gathered part of is sovereignty at the supranational level in order to be stronger, not weaker. He recalled that a majority of the funding for projects came from the EU.
He went on to say that the HDZ had led reforms aimed at ensuring democratic institutions, high standards in the protection of human and minority rights, a functioning justice system, and press freedoms.
Plenković said the government was continuing with decentralisation. “The HDZ has set partnership, functioning decentralisation, fiscal decentralisation and joint projects as the four main elements for kickstarting the development of all of Croatia.”
He said they had ensured 44 projects for Karlovac County worth over 2.5 billion kuna.
More news about the European Parliament elections can be found in the Politics section.
