Croatia welcomes pro-Ukrainian government

The day before, the Croatian Parliament approved the government headed by the pro-European and pro-Ukrainian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, who is taking office for the third term.

Reuters, EP write about it.

As noted in the media outlet, the ruling party HDZ — the Croatian Democratic Union — formed a coalition with the far-right Homeland Movement (DP). Of the 141 deputies present, 79 voted for the government, 61 against, and one abstained.

DP will have three ministers in the 18-member government.

The anti-immigrant DP party conducted an election campaign:

• promoting the protection of traditional family values,
• opposing allowing the Serbian minority to join the future coalition.

According to the coalition agreement between the two parties, HDZ will retain its interior and culture ministers. Analysts say this means that the party's policy in the areas of migration and minority rights will not change.

DP, who entered the government for the first time, will lead the Ministry of Agriculture, the new Ministry of Demography, and part of the Ministry of Economy, which was split into two departments.

HDZ retained ministers from the previous government, bringing in only one new face.

Therefore, in Croatia, until the presidential elections are held at the end of 2024, a government friendly to Ukraine will remain in power while Croatia's president is pro-Russian.

Early elections in Croatia, in which Prime Minister Plenković's party won, resulted from large-scale protests over allegations of corruption by the HDZ.

The ruling HDZ won 61 seats in the 151-seat parliament. In the preliminary elections 2020, the party, which has recently faced accusations of corruption, won 66 seats.

The coalition led by the opposition Social Democratic Party, whose informal leader is pro-Russian President Zoran Milanović, took second place with 42 seats. Party leader Peđa Grbin admitted the results were not what the political force wanted but said they "showed that … people want change."

Reference

As reported, in May 2023, 9 Mi-8 helicopters flew from Zagreb to the territory of Ukraine. At that time, helicopters did not seem to be transported but flew from Croatia via Poland. The first batch of Mi-8 was sent to Ukraine on May 5. Five more such aircraft were expected shortly. They were supposed to arrive by land.

In addition, Croatia will help Ukraine with demining. Minister of Economy of Ukraine Yuliya Svyridenko and Prime Minister of Croatia Andrej Plenković signed an intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in the field of demining.