President Zoran Milanovic said on Friday said that only the National Security Council (VNS) could determine whether radicalisation of Croatian society had occurred, however it was not convened after the shooting in St. Mark's Square, and he described that as flippant behaviour.

Two days ago a meeting of the Coordinating Committee for Homeland Security was held and Milanovic believes that that is not the body that is authorised to instruct anyone. It is the VNS which is the umbrella organisation for national security and which according to the Law on Homeland Security, represents the “mastermind of the entire national security system.”

“A subordinate body, which has no authority to take initiative, cannot be convened first” said Milanovic, claiming that context the Coordinating Committee’s recommendations are senseless.

Whoever recommends a police curfew should be “put away”

Milanovic does not agree that a police curfew should be introduced because of the coronavirus pandemic and a surge in infections, and added that whoever made that suggestion should “be put away.”

“This is a struggle for health and above all for the mental health of mankind. I think that anyone who is thinking of a police curfew should be put away. People get goosebumps at the mention of a police curfew,” he said.

I am not following the situation every day but I can see that people are losing their mental health…I do not want to hear of a police curfew, said Milanovic who considers that a decision like that would create a complete mess.

My support to the government for budget but I urge amendments to Criminal Code

Commenting on the 2020 budget revision and proposed budget for next year, Milanovic said that they were as they could be in the current circumstances, and expressed his support to the government in that regard.

“The government is in a very difficult situation. I have accepted that from the beginning…I am not the enemy, I am not the opposition leader…the budget is as it can be at the moment,” he said.

All European countries will have huge budget deficits because forecast growth rates were by no means achieved which creates a gap in the budget, he added.

“The government has my support for the budget but I am also suggesting that it amends some elements to the Criminal Code such as the duration of Uskok (anti-corruption) cases where the suspects are state officials. They need to be completed within a year in the first instance,” said Milanovic.