ZAGREB, December 30, 2019 – Presidential candidate Zoran Milanović said on Sunday wars were over and that there should be no more trading in hate at the expense of those who had given the most yet received the least, and called for fighting for “civilised peace.”
Speaking at an election rally, he also called “for tolerance and normal relations between people, for what we lost in the privatisation plunder… for what made up the backbone, the core of this society – work, creation, the harder path.”
“We can’t be a state which lives off rent, natural resources” and membership in the ruling HDZ party, he said.
“There is no true Croatia,” he added. Croatia is “a republic of all its citizens, equal citizens, a republic of peace, happiness, prosperity, a republic in which there is respect for those who are different… an open society, a good society.”
A republic in which prosperity is not measured only by money, in which people want to live and then there will be many more children, he said. That is not achieved by those who resort to force, violence and threat, but those willing to talk and approach people regardless of faith, he added.
“That’s the modern and open society I have been fighting for… for 13 years now… I want to lead a political organisation which will advocate and create an open society for open and free people.”
Milanović said that in recent years the office of the president of the republic had been neglected. “I’m bringing something different. I’ll be the president of all citizens, I’ll bring together the best. We will win… because we are better, because we are more humane, more patient and moderate in the things we offer and promise.”
He reiterated that important for demography was an honest government which citizens recognised as theirs and which would not abandon them. “When people recognise that… they stay and fight because they realise that a good, open, honest government supports them, and they will have it with me as president.”
Milanović also commented on the 658,000 migrants who crossed Croatia four years ago, when he was prime minister, en route to a better life in Germany and elsewhere.
“We behaved humanely then, but first and foremost as rational politicians, because my job as president is to first and foremost serve Croatia’s interests and only then general laws, because if you are not guided by those general laws, society turns into a mob in which everyone is for himself… in which those who are decent, who are weaker, get the worst of it, and that’s the majority, unfortunately… That majority is my people and my voters, all Croatian citizens, not true or false ones.”
“The Adriatic is the backbone of our world, as is continental Croatia, and we must become aware of our identity, not rebuild it. We are a Mediterranean country, a Central European country and, in part, in the Balkans, and this makes us rich,” he said. “We are incredibly talented, full of spirit, energy, and we won’t let the merchants in hate and intolerance kill that merry human spirit in us. Our people is merry, curious, but intelligent. Croatia is not disappearing and don’t fall for panic tricks that tomorrow we won’t be here, that we will be crushed.”
Milanović went on to say that he saw a “nice energy” and normal thinking in Croatia. He said it was high time for change and that as president he would not go around as a lobbyist buttonholing shady types but as the chief agent and advocate of Croatian interests.
He said that whatever the outcome of the runoff, the climate in Croatia after this campaign would be “different, healthier… It’s time we set high goals. We can be among the first 15 in Europe.”
Milanović is the presidential candidate of the opposition Social Democrats and 12 other parties.
More news about presidential elections can be found in the Politics section.
