ZAGREB, March 19, 2019 – Prime Minister and HDZ president Andrej Plenković said on Tuesday the party’s Pozega City Council deputy chairman, Igor Krizmanić, who has been accused of domestic violence by his daughter, has suspended all of his party duties and that this was “a clear message that the (ruling party) does not tolerate violence.”
“The message we sent since being in power is that we have no tolerance to violence. We recognised this horrible social phenomenon which exists… but with all the mechanisms state authorities have at their disposal, we need to do everything to prevent violence, to harshly punish perpetrators, help victims, bolster institutions and raise public awareness,” Plenković told reporters.
Asked what ministers were doing if citizens had to hold a protest to point to violence, he said a lot was being done in implementing the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence.
Plenković said there had been no self-promotion in the fact that he attended Saturday’s protest against violence. “There was, recognising the problem, having sympathy for those who experienced violence, respecting the initiative that (organised the protest).”
He said the government had addressed the problem but that state mechanisms, because of the law, institutional shortcomings and insufficient coordination, had not tackled it. He said these were processes that took time and that it was good that citizens and initiatives pointed to the extent of violence.
“The (Istanbul) Convention went into force on October 1, after which we signed a protocol on cooperation between ministries, after which the Ministry of Demography, Family, Youth and Social Policy prepared a protocol on the procedures of every department with regard to protection from violence which will be put to public consultation this week.”
Plenković said Croatia’s implementation of the Convention would be overseen as of 2020 by the GREVIO expert group. “The Council of Europe learned from experience that it takes at least three to four years to implement legislative novelties.”
Commenting on recent local elections in Lika County, he said it would not be possible to form a ruling majority without the HDZ and that the HDZ wished to “improve the quality of life of the people who live there and to implement projects worth about 900 million kuna in European Union funds.”
Commenting on the recent discovery of a missing file on police leaks in the Zagreb Municipal Prosecutor’s Office archives related to an elite prostitution investigation from 2011, Plenković said, “It’s better that it was found than that someone had taken it.”
He also commented on media reports that the manager of the Krka National Park, Nella Slavica, had been a member of both the HDZ and the HNS parties at the same time. “Under our statute, she can’t be in two parties.”
Asked if this offence was enough to fire her, he said he did not know if it was an offence and that the matter should be checked first.
More news about the HDZ can be found in the Politics section.
