ZAGREB, December 8, 2019 – Presidential candidate Miroslav Škoro said on Sunday he would lead a movement that would end fear across the country and that Croatia would celebrate December 22, the date of the presidential election, in unity as there would be no runoff.
Speaking at a rally in Zagreb under the slogan “Now or never!”, Škoro said that on December 22 Croatia “will vote ‘for’ after a long time,” which would be the first step in “giving the state back to the people, and that there was no force or party dictatorship that would take the celebration away from them.
Škoro said he would win because the people was behind him and proud and strong war veterans were with him, as well as thanks to the unity of Croats at home and in the diaspora, and with the same heart with which independent Croatia was created.
He said the HDZ party of 30 years ago, when the Croatian state was being created, had nothing in common with the current HDZ. Prime Minister and HDZ Andrej Plenković and President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović do not have the strength required for change but they dare to say that Škoro has betrayed the HDZ, he added.
“No, no and no,” he said, adding that Plenković had betrayed the HDZ and its founder Franjo Tuđman. He had a message for HDZ voters, saying they “must know that a vote for Grabar-Kitarović is also a vote for Plenković.”
Škoro went on to say that he wanted to be the president who would unite the suffering but proud and industrious people who had experienced many disappointments over the past 20 years. “I’ll be independent of any political, business or private interest. No one will be able to call and tell me what to do. I will be accountable only to the people and if the people give me a thumbs down, I will go of my own accord, you won’t have to push me away.”
Škoro said he would score a landslide victory because “they have stolen the state from the people.” He said it was a sad country whose president was talking about cakes and singing at every opportunity, whose prime minister, because of his ego, would not receive striking teachers for a month, and where one could become parliament speaker with only 808 votes won.
Škoro said he would “restore dignity” to the office of president.
Presenting his platform, he said that in order to carry out the necessary changes, he would ask for greater presidential powers, make it possible to value knowledge, excellence and ability instead of party affiliation, and that the first referendum he would call would be on the Distraint Act so that 250,000 people could have a second chance.
Škoro said he would ask the people’s an opinion on something at a referendum and that if the referendum failed, he would resign because he did would not be a president without the people’s support.
He said that “after Grabar-Kitarović’s defeat in the presidential election,” he expected the government to immediately step down, parliament to dissolve, and a new parliamentary election.
The ruling HDZ and the opposition SDP are preparing a big coalition, which would be “the last nail in the coffin of parliamentary democracy,” he said, adding that winning the presidential election was crucial for preventing them to “end us all.”
He supported increasing the military budget and stepping up the modernisation of the army, saying that the army should be deployed along the border if necessary. He will also demand more EU money for the protection of the Croatian, therefore the European border.
Škoro said Bosnia and Herzegovina would be the first country he would visit as president, and that Serbia must not join the EU before shedding light on missing Croatian defenders and civilians, returning Croatia’s cultural artefacts and archives, admitting to the military aggression against Croatia, and suffering the political and other consequences of that aggression, including the payment of reparations to former Serb concentration camp inmates.
More news about Miroslav Škoro can be found in the Politics section.
