Morning start to the parliament session on Friday (March 23) was marked by a speech made by opposition MP Pedja Grbin (SDP) who spoke about President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović's official invitation to Russian President Vladimir Putin to visit Croatia.

According to a report by the Kremlin press service, Grabar-Kitarović had phoned Putin on Thursday to congratulate him on his election victory last weekend, which secured him his fourth term on the job which will last until 2024.

“The Prime Minister (Andrej Plenković) was not aware that the President (Grabar-Kitarović) had invited Putin, this was not coordinated with him. He said so himself after a European Council meeting in which it has been agreed that Russia was responsible for the nerve gas attack in the UK. The President embarassed herself with her statements in Argentina, and after that she used yet another opportunity to embarass herself and put in jeopardy Croatia’s position. We cannot have two opposing voices controlling our foreign policy. I think the time has come to ask ourselves if Croatia needs this dualism. I call for state officials to hold a meeting as soon as possible to harmonise Croatia’s foreign policy,” Grbin said.

Grbin’s speech came after Prime Minister Andrej Plenković had attended a meeting of the European Council dinner in Brussels on Thursday, in which EU countries condemned the nerve gas attack earlier this month in the British town of Salisbury. Plenković said Croatia’s state officials would discuss how to respond to the chill in EU-Russia relations, after several EU countries announced they would either expel Russian diplomats or recall their ambassadors from Moscow.