President Ivo Josipovic's office issued a statement on Friday in response to an interview which the president of the Serb People's Council and MP Milorad Pupovac gave to the Serbian newspaper Danas, saying Pupovac made a number of unacceptable statements, "positioning Croatia as a hostage to his private problems."
According to the statement, Pupovac said the continuation of the criticisms of his policy and the questioning of his work warranted the claim that Croatia was perhaps not meeting the commitments required for European Union membership. "Thereby, Mr. Pupovac puts himself above the principle of the democratic functioning of society and freedom of press, positioning Croatia as a hostage to his private problems."
The statement went on to say that because of the criticism, Pupovac evidently intended to report Croatia to the EU, whereby "he wants to equate his position with the position of minorities in Croatia, forgetting that the strongest criticism of his work came from the ranks of the Serb minority. It's shocking that Mr. Pupovac is willing to endanger Croatia's European future for his own interests."
According to the statement, Pupovac's claim that President Josipovic is turning to the right is legitimate but misplaced. "Not only because it comes from a political leader who was a coalition partner to right-wing governments in two terms, but also because of the misplaced argument regarding the President's attendance of commemorations of tragic events from the past."
The statement recalled that Josipovic was one of the senior officials who most frequently attended commemorations of World War Two victims and that he was the first who paid his respects to the Serb victims of the 1991-95 Homeland War.
