President Zoran Milanovic said on Monday that Jadrolinija CEO David Sopta and Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic "must urgently explain what is happening... with the state shipping company that is the backbone of Croatian maritime transport."

“Enough of their arrogance and belittling of people,” Milanovic said in a Facebook post.

“Jadrolinija’s ferries have become unsafe for passengers and crew members, and instead of ensuring their safety, Plenkovic talks about some kind of pressure and damage to the government, once again playing the victim. You have to be extremely insensitive and arrogant to come up with such fabrications after three Jadrolinija sailors tragically lost their lives in the still-unresolved Lastovo ferry accident.”

And ferry incidents have continued to occur, Milanovic said.

“This latest one on the Mljet ferry, fortunately, did not have serious consequences for the passengers and the crew, but it showed that ferries of questionable safety are sailing our seas, which requires a serious review of the system and the fleet’s maintenance practices, as well as of the company’s management model. The problem is obviously not just the old vessels, which are purchased under suspicious circumstances, but also the overall maintenance and servicing of the vessels because incidents are happening even with new ferries.”

“I emphasise that this is about the safety of the people who use the ferries and those who work on them, while Plenkovic only cares about the safety of his chosen one, Sopta, whose main qualification is playing basketball with him,” the president said.

He also recalled that seafarers’ unions have repeatedly warned about the problems, “so both Plenkovic and the management of Jadrolinija knew that something was wrong and could have taken the necessary measures.”

“We all know that the chain of command in Jadrolinija goes directly from Plenković to Sopta. But they don’t care. Sopta doesn’t care because he has political backing from Plenkovic, and Plenkovic doesn’t care because he thinks he can do whatever he wants. After all this, Sopta can no longer avoid responsibility for the sailors’ deaths and the repeated endangerment of passenger and crew safety. By doing nothing and defending his friend’s position, Plenkovic has taken on that responsibility himself. And he will be responsible for the possible destruction of Jadrolinija, which, under such company management, will not be able to compete in the future,” the president said.