ZAGREB, January 27, 2020 – President-elect Zoran Milanović on Monday said that the presidential inauguration would be “decent and dignified.”
The presidential inauguration will be held on February 18 in the President’s Palace on Pantovčak Hill, he said and added that it will be “decent and dignified.”
“Tradition has to exist but I have decided for this. I have said what the criteria are and I hope no one will be offended,” he said.
Asked whether the former director of the SOA Security Intelligence Agency Dragan Lozančić has agreed to be one of his advisers, Milanović said that talks on that were still under way.
“An adviser for national security has to exist because he is the only one, who in some way is mandatory by law because he represents the president in a particular institution. Other matters are an indicator of preference and the president’s aspirations,” he said and added that he would not have an adviser for social activities because that is not in his remit.
He added that there would not be many advisers in the Office of the President, not for the sake of austerity but that he “does not want to compete with the government in every segment of its authority and have advisers for all of the government’s departments.”
President-elect Zoran Milanović on Monday said that there has been too many scandals over the past two years with officials incorrectly completing their Declaration of Assets, so that this is not just a matter related to Health Minister Milan Kujundžić and his assets, said Milanović.
“There has been too much of that in the past two years, I’m not thinking of Kujundžić, there’s just been too much. The government will have my support however the government has to be a political body comprising people who have some political clout, reputation, status, influence in the political organisation that has nominated them where they are. If the government is too technical, then it has a problem,” said Milanović after testifying at Zagreb County Court in the “travel allowance” scandal.
This is not just a matter concerning Kujundžić but an entire series of officials who complete their declaration of assets incorrectly and it is interesting that they always report that they have less assets than they truly own.
Milanovic noted that that system is a lot more flexible in the European Parliament and less rigorous because there MEPs just have to sign a statement of the interests they may have. He believes that the system in Croatia has existed long enough for people to have become accustomed to it and in his opinion, it should be even more rigorous.
The statement was given by Milanović before he entered Zagreb County Court where he is supposed to testify in the trial dubbed travel allowance scam in which Tomislav Saucha, who was Milanovic’s chief of staff during his premiership, and his secretary, Sandra Zeljko, are indicted for forgery of travel expenses documents.
More news about Zoran Milanović can be found in the Politics section.
