Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Monday that Zagreb's post-quake reconstruction will take a long time, "10 seconds of the earthquake and a minimum of 10 years of reconstruction," adding that the Reconstruction Act guarantees that the entire process will be sustainable and legally clean.

“An entire series of activities that the government has taken to date, has created the preconditions for us to soon launch concrete works after everything that was done with regard to preparations. That is a process that will  last a long time, years as is the case after other natural disasters. There is no doubt about that. Ten seconds of earthquake is a minimum of 10 years of reconstruction,” Plenkovic told reporters ahead of a meeting of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) leadership.

He added that all departments, services and institutions will continue working on Zagreb’s reconstruction.

“There are several phases – short, medium and long term and reconstruction will unfortunately take a long time and requires a lot of stakeholders to make a contribution. I think that this experience will help Banovina to be reconstructed faster and more efficiently,” underscored Plenkovic.

The prime minister underscored that the Reconstruction Act guarantees that the process will be sustainable and legally clean without any obstacles to long-term reconstruction activities.

“There is not one law that cannot be improved. Time will tell if there are some solutions that were not assessed well at the time. There is no problem in amending the law if there is reason to do so,” he said.

I don’t see any relevance in what Olujic says about anything

Asked to comment on a statement by former Supreme Court Chief Justice Krunislav Olujić who accused the HDZ of being the most to blame for the situation in the judiciary, Plenkovic said that he did not see any relevance in Olujic’s statement about anything.

“I know the gentleman superficially. I don’t know why he would be an authority for his stance to be essential at this particular time…That the HDZ has its paws on the judiciary. That is an attempt to pass the buck on the executive government and ruling party without any support. They are untruths, misinformation, cliches and obviously malicious theories that that gentleman and the like bandy around but those claims are groundless,” claimed Plenkovic.

Plenkovic believes that the government certainly is not to blame for the current situation in the judiciary nor the HDZ nor its current leadership.

“I have to explain to the Croatian public for the 500th time if need be that judges in Croatia are not appointed politically. They are not appointed by the government. They are not appointed by the Parliament. They are appointed by the State Judicial Council (DSV). For years judges in Croatia have been appointed by people in the judicial system or the academic community and that is a fact,” underscored Plenkovic.