Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said on Sunday evening that a protest rally against the plan to introduce signs in the Cyrillic script, held in Zagreb, was in fact a political rally, announcing that bilingual signs and plates would be set up in the eastern Croatian town of Vukovar most probably after the local election.
"The law mentions 'a reasonable deadline'. I believe this will be after the local elections so as to avoid giving a reason to those who clearly want unrest, to exploit that in political purposes at the election because, as far as I am concerned, this is not the topic of the elections in Vukovar," Milanovic told Croatian Television.
Commenting on a reporter's claim that protesters had announced they already have a schedule according to which they will take down bilingual plates and signs, even by use of force, Milanovic said. "The law is the law and we will defend it."
Asked to comment on messages from the protest rally that government representatives were not welcome in Vukovar should they set up bilingual signs, the PM said the government most definitely was not welcome as far as protesters were concerned, adding however that there were people who think differently.
Milanovic said he was not surprised by a large number of protesters in Zagreb's main square. According to the police, some 25,000 people took part in Sunday's protest, but organisers claim that number is three times higher.
Asked to comment on the fact that Sunday's event turned into a political rally against the government, Milanovic said the protest had not turned into an anti-government rally but was planned as such.
He also refuted claims that the government refused to receive organisers of the event.
Asked to comment on claims by some analysts that Sunday's rally was was the beginning of a new political gathering of right wing parties, Milanovic said he did not know anything about it and that he was not interested.
