Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said that Croatia did not buy the Black Hawk helicopters to use them as taxis. He was commenting on media reports that President Zoran Milanovic had asked the Military Security and Intelligence Agency to investigate the disclosure of information about his helicopter flights.

“I have no information about that, that’s interesting, should we now… investigate journalists or those who pass on information to journalists? What is that? Is that Lex AP?” Plenkovic said to reporters after a meeting of the HDZ Praesidium on Tuesday.

Croatia did not buy Black Hawk helicopters to use them like a taxi, he added.

“I do not see any of the rest of us using the army’s resources so nonchalantly”

This is exactly the point, and it is important that Croatian citizens know this, said the Prime Minister.

“The role of the armed forces is not to escort or protect, that is the responsibility of the Ministry of the Interior, the regulation that applies to me also applies to the President of the Republic and the Speaker of Parliament. I do not see any of the rest of us using the army’s resources so nonchalantly,” said Plenkovic.

According to the weekly newspaper Nacional, before last weekend, President Milanovic reported the as yet unidentified individuals to the Military Security and Intelligence Agency (VSOA) for leaking state secrets to unauthorised persons on several occasions in July and August and giving reporters details of his movements, including the exact times and places where he was staying and when he was due to take off or land on board a military helicopter.