ZAGREB, June 24, 2020 – Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic reiterated on Wednesday that postponing the parliamentary election was not an option even if the coronavirus situation deteriorated, stressing that Croatia was in a better situation than other countries facing elections.
“Our government defeated COVID-19 in the first wave. If you look at the figures, we are among the top three EU countries with the lowest number of new cases and the lowest number of active cases,” Plenkovic said while responding to questions from the press during a visit to the northern city of Cakovec.
By way of illustration, he cited France which is holding the second round of local elections while recording over 500 new cases daily.
Asked if it wasn’t hypocritical of the government to call on the public to be responsible while he himself refused to self-isolate after meeting the infected Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic, Plenkovic said he had explained their contact on Tuesday.
“If our contact had been such to qualify as close contact, I certainly would have followed the recommendations from epidemiologists rather than those from quack doctors from the opposition who have a political interest to raise such issues. That’s a big difference,” he said.
Plenkovic said that he was willing to do another test if necessary but that he did not see any need for it. He said he believed this would not harm his HDZ party in the forthcoming election because “people are serious and they see well who is doing what.”
Asked if this situation was damaging to Croatia given that foreign media were also writing about his refusal to self-isolate, the prime minister said that it was not because “this information is not true.” He referred the press to statements from the Public Health Institute rather than “copying statements by opposition politicians.”
