Protest note to Italy
Croatian Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs delivered a protest note to the Italian ambassador and strongly condemned the erection of a monument to the Italian fascist Gabriele D'Annunzio in Trieste. He in September 1919 proclaimed an independent state in Rijeka called the Italian Administration for Kvarner.
But, a bigger problem emerged in Rijeka, the northern Croatian Adriatic city, where a historical flag of the Kingdom of Italy was displayed on the fence of the Governor's Palace (that is the name of the building a hundred years ago, today it is Maritime and History Museum of the Croatian Primorje). Reminding citizens that one hundred years ago they were occupied by latter fascist Italy. Italian reporter Cristiano Puglisi said in his blog that "a mysterious group called Gli Idraulici (Plumbers)" issued a statement saying that their action marked the 100th anniversary of the occupation of Rijeka by a paramilitary group of legionnaires under the command of the Italian poet, adventurer and proto-fascist Gabriele D'Annunzio. They said they wanted to show that there were still Italians who were not surrendering.
As jutarnji.hr learned, the Italian fascists' invasion of Rijeka has been carefully planned. They intended to enter Croatia from several directions - by buses, motorcycles and small planes. During the day, three small Piper aircraft flew from smaller airports in Turin, Pescara and Trieste to Croatia. They were denied entrance but later in the afternoon two of them succeeded in their attempt and landed on Airport on island Krk, close to Rijeka. But the police was waiting for them and they were not allowed to enter Croatia.
“ We don't tolerate provocations ... and we don't allow anyone to violate our country's legal order and undermine its dignity," said Prime Minister Andrej Plenković.
Šarec again about Schengen
"Croatia's Schengen entry doesn't depend on Slovenia but on the evaluation commission," Slovenian Prime Minister Marjan Šarec told Slovenian Radio, adding that security was the "exclusive" and main criterion for the evaluation. “I am indeed concerned about the security situation on Croatia's borders with Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina”, Šarec said, adding that Croatia should protect the EU's external border better so that illegal migrants did not cross Croatia into Slovenia and the current Schengen Area. Asked if Slovenia, after Croatia met the technical requirements for joining Schengen, would politically block the accession because of their border arbitration dispute, Šarec said: "it's impossible to talk about that at this moment." More on jutarnji.hr.
Emil Tedeschi criticized everything
Atlantic Grupa (one of the biggest Croatian companies) CEO Emil Tedeschi on the conference “Poduzetnički mindset” (Entrepreneurial mindset) criticized: Academy of Music, Zagreb mayor Milan Bandić, airport …
Here are some excerpts (more on index.hr):
- It is commonly said that Croatian citizens support athletes. It's just bullshit. We only love champions. I will ask you when our athletes turn 12th in the Olympic Games when swimmers qualify for the B finals of the Olympic Games. Who will welcome them? Will they be ours then? Or then they won a solid 11th place, but when the gold was won, then we all won it.
- We have two resources. We have humans and we have nature. People are leaving. That's great if only we had the idea that they had somewhere to go back.
- When we see a black man, we want to lynch him in Split. When we hear someone speak Serbian, we throw him into the sea. When we see an Asian in front of St. Mark's church, we still laugh and point our finger at him. We find this strange. We are deeply trapped in ourselves, and our only chance is to connect with the world. Connecting has nothing to do with rejecting one’s tradition.
- It's time to finally answer what was 1941 and 1945, once and for all. The world did that, only we are not determined because someone's grandparents, fathers, uncles ... so what. We have to look at Germany. Today Germans are the most advanced nation in every respect, above all in openness, inclusivity, accepting something different, cooperating with everyone and having no problems, but we have problems with ourselves.
Shadow buyer endangers Braća Pivac in the takeover of Kraš
In today’s print edition of Jutarnji list Frenki Laušić is opening a question: who is behind safe custody account in Raiffeisen Bank Austria and from 5th to 9th September bought 10.388 from 13.912 shares of Kraš that were traded. Owner of that account became the fifth biggest shareholder of Kraš and it opens the possibility of disturbing plans of Braća Pivac company for the takeover of Kraš.
Amendments on 61 laws sent to parliament
The government on Thursday forwarded to parliament amendments to 61 laws to align them with the new Public Administration Act which abolishes the position of assistant minister and introduces the position of a department head as well as merges state administration offices at the county level with counties. These measures implement the government's reform measures - decentralisation, rationalisation and depoliticisation, State Secretary Darko Nekić said at the cabinet meeting. Hina
Stabile budget
State budget revenues amounted to HRK 65.1 billion (€8,8 billion) in the first six months of this year, an increase of 8.5 per cent compared to the same period last year, while expenditures rose 8.3 per cent, to HRK 66.9 billion (€9.04 billion).
Concerning revenue and expenditure developments, the state budget posted a deficit of HRK 1.88 billion in the first six months of this year, which is approximately at the same level as last year. Presenting the report, the State Secretary at the Ministry of Finance Zdravko Zrinušić said that positive economic developments had continued in the first half of the year, with real GDP increasing by 3.1% compared with the first half of 2018. Tax revenues increased by 4.8% to HRK 37.1 billion, with VAT revenues going up by 4.7% to HRK 23.5 billion. This was mainly due to increased spending as a result of positive economic trends, Zrinušić said, recalling that additional tax reliefs had become effective at the start of the year. Hina
Best of St. Petersburg theatre at Zagreb's HNK
The Croatian National Theatre (HNK) in Zagreb is launching its new season with four of the best plays by the St. Petersburg theatre as part of the St. Petersburg International Theatre Season Festival which opened on Thursday with a play entitled "Taras" based on Nikolai Gogol's novel "Taras Bulba". Today’s print edition of Jutarnji list has an interview with Sergey Potapov, director of “Taras”, called “Tarantino from Siberia”.