War Veterans Minister Tomo Medved said on Wednesday that all political actors in Croatia should refrain from radicalising the current situation, making inappropriate statements and calling for a revolt or doing anything else that might provoke intolerance.

“We have been witnessing completely inappropriate and irresponsible public statements, by certain politicians as well as by individuals and groups on social networks. I call primarily on people holding public and responsible offices, whether they be MPs, mayors or something else, to refrain from radicalisation, inappropriate messages, calls for a revolt or any other acts that cause intolerance,” Medved said ahead of a government session.

Penava has duty to build society of tolerance, not call for revolt

Medved then criticised a statement made on Tuesday by Vukovar mayor Ivan Penava who said that the man who shot at the government building and wounded a police officer on Monday “is not like his peers, who have escaped to Germany, but has shown a revolt.”

“All of us who hold public offices should work on building a tolerant society, a society of respect, and on building our institutions instead of undermining them and calling for a revolt,” Medved said.

He also described as entirely unacceptable Homeland Movement MP Karolina Vidovic Kristo’s statement that “not even putting tanks around St. Mark’s Square (the seat of the government building) will save the government from public discontent.”

As for the hand-over of unlawfully held weapons, Medved said that in the past 30 years there had been a number of campaigns calling on citizens to surrender weapons left over from the 1990s war.

“More than 300,000 illegal weapons and various explosive devices have been handed over. I call on war veterans and all those still holding illegal weapons to surrender them to the police,” he said, noting that there was no longer any reason or threat that would justify illegal possession of firearms.