On Monday, the Croatian Parliament's Defence Committee supported the government's decision to send Croatian military personnel to the NATO mission "Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine" (NSATU) with seven votes in favour, one against and two abstentions.

The decision will be put to the vote on Friday. This requires a two-thirds majority of at least 101 MPs.

During the discussion, which lasted several hours and ended in the early evening, the President’s Chief of Staff, Orsat Miljenic, insisted that the Committee meeting be closed to the public, while Committee members from the ruling coalition and Defence Minister Ivan Anusic argued that this was not necessary as there was nothing to hide.

Anusic: We are not hiding anything at all

“You accuse us of lying, and now the minister says that there is secret information and that you can get it if you close the session, which you do not want because you do not want to hear the truth,” Miljenic said to the members of the ruling coalition, who had previously rejected the proposal of committee chairman Arsen Bauk (SDP) to close the session to the public.

“There is a report from 23 September, which is secret. It could be relevant to this decision. Close the committee, and if Chief of General Staff Tihomir Kundid does not say anything new, the president will apologise,” Miljenic added.

“We are not hiding anything at all. We have provided all the information we have and Kundid was forbidden to come to the committee session to refute the lies told,” Anusic replied, adding that he had the secret report in question and that it was irrelevant.

“How can irrelevant information be classified as secret?” asked Ranko Ostojic (SDP party), while Marin Zivkovic wanted to know who classified the information as secret.

Proposal to invite the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister to convene a meeting of the Defence Council rejected

Independent MP Marija Selak-Raspudic said that it is unconstitutional to withhold from lawmakers something on which their decision depends, as the President of the Republic implies. In order to clarify whether there is secret information that could change the opinion of MPs, she suggested that the report be sent to them before the vote.

Ivana Kekin (Mozemo party) said that not all NATO countries have committed to sending their soldiers to the NSATU mission. Nine countries have made a decision, others are still considering and it is not known whether they will decide in favour, she said.

During the discussion, members of the ruling coalition repeated that the president was lying, manipulating, working for the Russians and using the situation for his own election campaign by scaring the public that Croatia would be dragged into the war in Ukraine by participating in the mission.

The Committee chairman’s proposal that the committee should call on the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister to convene a meeting of the Defence Council was rejected. The members of the ruling coalition stated that the Committee could not demand that this body be convened.