President Zoran Milanovic on Friday said that the state attorney system in Croatia has caved in and added that was a terrible problem because it is questionable how the system can be led by someone who is not trusted.

“The state attorney system is falling apart – that is a terrible problem. Overnight, a totally lost guy is placed at the helm of the Ministry of Defence (Mario Banozic), disappeared into the background, and the state attorney (Zlata Hrvoj-Sipek) is being saved, who obviously tried to save the neck of a member of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) presidency (Gabrijela Zalac)”, Milanovic said after visiting the SUVAG centre for disabled children.

State Attorney’s office ‘functioning on trust that has been lost’

Referring to the work of the State Attorney’s office after the parliament adopted a report by Hrvoj-Sipek, Milanovic said that it “would be surrealist for the HDZ to penalise her now,” and that “it has been proved and bared to the Croatian public, either via investigative reporting or due to the fatal incompetence of the protagonists.”

“One has to ask, how can these people prosecute the most serious crimes? It seems they can. When you know how they were appointed to leading positions and with what kind of protection and deals behind the scenes, and all under the guise of publicly advertised vacancies which in reality did not exist and everything was decided in the cabinet of former (justice) minister Drazen Bosnjakovic, then this result is absolutely expected,” he claimed.

It is a serious problem, he underscored and reiterated that the state attorney system has caved in and is not functioning. “Because it only functions in a strict and clear straight hierarchy that leads to the top and in trust. Yet there is none, it has disappeared,” he said.

Once you shame yourself it is over, he added and underlined that this isn’t about just one person but the system that that person heads and who no one trusts.

‘Decision on mandatory vaccination should be made on national level’

Commenting on announcements by European Commissioner President Ursula von der Leyen about mandatory vaccination, Milanovic said that that should be something to be decided at the national level.

He added he is opposed to COVID certificates because he considers them to be a deviation which will soon be proved to be ridiculous.

Milanovic also commented on a Council of Europe report that the Croatian police are allegedly torturing illegal migrants, and rejected such interpretations.

‘The police have to impose some form of force’

“Such arrogant relations towards everyone jeopardise the European project. Those harmful people who are always sticking their noses somewhere and handing out lectures…How is Croatia supposed to protect its border?…The police have to implement some form of force,” he said accusing the authors of the CPT report as “not normal people.”

He added that there is no “human right to come to Berlin,” and anyone who wishes to do so has to be aware that at some stage they will come across resistance by the state that takes care of its territory.

“If someone can wander around freely as if on a promenade, that is not a state. And that is why it is hypocritical to hand out lectures from Strasbourg. Torture? What does that have to do with torture? Does someone think that the police are happy to walk around at minus 10 temperatures to go and torture people? I don’t see their role like that,” he concluded.