Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandrokovic said on Friday that the challenges faced by Croatia were great and required a serious approach, responsibility and reason instead of acts that add fuel to the flames.

“We have an epidemic, the number of new coronavirus cases has been growing by the day, we are dealing with the consequences of the earthquake, there was an attempt on the life of a police officer who guarded the government building. Those events demand that we all be serious, responsible and reasonable and not to add fuel to the flames because tension in society is running high,” Jandrokovic said, calling for defusing the tension and underlining the responsibility of MPs to take care of the public good.

If someone thinks that the government is not doing its job well, the response to that cannot be weapons, violence, insults and hatred, he said, also condemning messages of intolerance directed at members of the national COVID-19 response team.

He underlined the importance of the work of state institutions in times of crisis as well as the need to join forces to overcome the current crisis.

HDZ not spreading hatred

Jandrokovic said that the HDZ was not the one spreading hatred, but had rather done a lot, especially since Andrej Plenkovic was elected its leader, to defuse tension.

“Before 2016, the two people who led the HDZ and the SDP did not work to reduce differences in society, and the philosophy promoted then by the current president of the republic was ‘it’s us or them,'” said Jandrokovic.

Different things happened in the past and the SDP, too, shares the responsibility for them as do those political actors who make promises that cannot be fulfilled and incite hatred against others, said Jandrokovic.

“The phrase ‘us or them’ came from the then SDP leader (Milanovic) while the incumbent HDZ leader never made such a statement nor will he.”

Jandrokovic stressed that Croatia lacked dialogue and respect for different opinions. If we disagree politically, that is not the reason to resort to weapons, said Jandrokovic.

“We are not the ones spreading hatred… we want to talk to all who wish Croatia well, we want dialogue and a country our children will be proud of,” said the parliament speaker.

Many MPs, parliament employees ill or self-isolating

Jandrokovic noted that the parliament’s two-week autumn recess was a usual recess and that parliaments in other countries had recesses as well.

“Since the establishment of the parliament, there has been a recess at this time of the year,” he said, adding that during that period MPs can visit their constituents.

Jandrokovic noted that the coming recess was convenient also because of the epidemiological situation and the fact that a large number of MPs and parliament employees were either ill or self-isolating.

He noted that the parliament would have to reconsider its work to protect employees’ health while enabling parliamentary committees to continue their work and the parliament to hold sessions.

Three MPs and four parliament clerks have been told to self-isolate after attending a session of a parliamentary committee on Wednesday which was attended by Social Democrat MP Franko Vidovic, who has in the meantime tested positive for coronavirus.

Those MPs are Miroslav Skoro of the Homeland Movement and Niksa Vukas and Misel Jaksic of the SDP.