Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said that the opposition protest held in Zagreb on Saturday was a rally of the radical left, and that messages heard at the rally were "again vulgar and primitive."
Speaking to reporters after attending the launch of a ship built by the Rijeka-based “3. maj” shipyard for a Canadian client, Plenković said the messages at the rally are a result of President Zoran Milanovic’s “primitive and savage” rhetoric which he inaugurated more than four years ago, “so now every nobody thinks they can insult anyone using the coarsest language possible.”
Plenković repeated that the parliamentary elections would be held on time, and that the coming election campaign will be a “battle” between the truth and lies.
Croatians are very smart
“What we are saying is the truth and facts and what they are saying is a lie,” Plenkovic said, adding that “Croatians are ultimately very smart and wise.”
In the current challenging circumstances, with two international conflicts under way, serious people are needed to deal with economic, social and security challenges, and those who use such rhetoric and are primitive and intolerant are not the ones who can lead Croatia, said Plenkovic.
He added that he was not impressed by the insults that could be heard against him, Croatia’s first president Franjo Tuđman and the HDZ party at the rally.
“If President Tuđman, today’s HDZ and the government I am leading are mentioned in the same context, I am pleased and proud about that,” he said.
The protest of 11 left-wing parties is a warm-up for the elections, a rally that shows that there are two Croatias, of which one works and builds, gets up early to protect Croatian national interests and enable economic development, while those “who invited people to come to St. Mark’s Square are the ones who voted against the Law on the Croatian Language and against military aid to Ukraine,” said Plenković.
Croatia, too, has felt the consequences of Putin’s aggression against Ukraine, but it is owing to the government, “which the protesters called a gang that should be banned”, that social peace, citizens and the economy were protected, the PM said.
“I can understand protests, but let’s discuss the facts and what is being protested against,” he said, adding that maybe it was the fact that when the SDP was in power, there was no base pay rise and the average wage was increased by €25, while his government had raised it by 40%.
Yes to protest, no to primitivism
“Yes to democracy, to protests, but no to intolerance, defamation, primitivism, vulgar behaviour,” he said, adding that he preferred the company of people like workers, members of the Matica Hrvatska cultural institution (which initiated the adoption of the Law on the Croatian Language) and people “who are glad that the future state attorney-general has rehabilitated the Blessed Alojzije Stepinac.”
Those who are against that are not my company, he said, adding that the Zagreb rally would strongly motivate HDZ voters.
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