President Zoran Milanovic met with the mayor of Valpovo and his associates for a working meeting and then visited the Advent in Osijek, where he made a statement to the media.

He commented on the start of the presidential election campaign.

“I urge people to prepare and go to the polls, not to leave things to chance, to be at least as active and participate as in the parliamentary election this spring. This is important for Croatian democracy. A civil democracy, not an institutional one. Because the institutions in Croatia have been stolen, taken over and privatised. This is best seen in the example of most constitutional judges, most of whom do not fulfil this role today,” said Milanovic, mentioning once again that the constitutional judges have violated the constitution.

“These people are not keeping their word or their honour”

He labelled Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and State Attorney-General Ivan Turudic as a threat to democracy. He also stated that he does not intend to ban next year’s military parade to mark the 30th anniversary of Operation Storm.

“I could ban it, as my predecessor announced in 2015. I could be spiteful, but a president cannot be spiteful. In 2015, I was prime minister and had more support than the miserable level that Plenkovic and his people have now. Back then, the new HDZ member (Ivan) Anusic, the ‘Kissinger of Antunovac’, ran was parading against the parade.

Although I should have organised it together with him as commander-in-chief, he went ahead with his own announcements. But I have no intention of banning them. Back then they were all against it, now they are in favour. So go and vote, because these people are not keeping their word or their honour,” said Zoran Milanovic.