ZAGREB, January 15, 2020 – Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Wednesday he would not allow Croatia to be labelled as a country of anarchy, disorder and distrust in the system.
“That simply isn’t correct,” he said in parliament during Question Time after Social Democratic Party president Davor Bernardić said a recent triple murder in Split pointed to a lack of trust in institutions, which he said was Croatia’s huge problem.
Citizens are bitter with good reason and side with those who take justice into their hands, which is not good. People have lost trust in the police, the State Prosecutor’s Office, the judiciary and the government, Bernardić said, asking Plenković what was being done to stop the chaos, disorder and lawlessness.
“Such a generalisation doesn’t hold water,” Plenković said, adding that statistics showed Croatia to be one of the safer EU member states.
He said Bernardic was taking the Split case out of context. “It’s as though you are showing understanding for an anarchy attempt, for taking justice into one’s own hands.”
“The government and state institutions won’t allow that. There will be no anarchy in Croatia,” Plenković said, adding that the police had undertaken many operations which resulted in arrests and indictments against many criminal groups.
In Split-Dalmatia County alone, there have been 1,823 narcotics seizures, he said, adding that the police solved last weekend’s triple murder in a matter of hours. He agreed that the work of institutions must be stepped up, including prevention.
Bernardić agreed it was not good that people were taking justice into their hands but insisted that Plenković did not say what was being done and that, therefore, “nothing is being done.”
He told the prime minister to look at what the people was thinking instead of hiding in Brussels and Strasbourg. People have lost trust in institutions, they can’t look at the chaos, that’s why whole families are emigrating, mainly from regions where the HDZ is in power such as Slavonia, he said.
“People feel unsafe with good reason. Your four-year term can be summed up with two words, chaos and corruption,” Bernardić said.
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