Protest due to hail, Dretar called for the implementation of the law on defense against hail

Homeland Movement MP Davor Dretar on Sunday, in front of the County Palace in the center of Varaždin, organized a protest against the non-implementation of defense against hail, called for the law to be implemented, and told the governing party that protecting crops and property from hail is a common legal, human and homeland right.

Davor Dretar, who was elected as a member of parliament in the 3rd electoral unit, which consists of Varaždin, Međimurje and Krapina-Zagorje counties, symbolically handed out vegetables for soup to the gathered, warning that they might be the last from this region.

Namely, that region has been hit by hail on several occasions in recent days, causing great damage to agricultural crops.

“We are simply asking that the current Law (on protection from hail) be implemented. If all the others are implemented, there is no reason not to implement this extremely important law,” said Dretar and added that "what the Prime Minister and Minister Vučković are offering us is not a solution".

"If there is hail, there will be fire"

“We ourselves see the existing loopholes in the hail defense system, operationally it is not being carried out properly,” he said, expressing his fear that in a few days or weeks, hail will repeat itself with catastrophic damage. "And then we can only say: if there is ice, there will be fire," said Dretar sharply.

He called out the prefects of Krapina-Zagorska and Međimurje counties for not paying a single kuna for the hail defense system in the last two years, since 2020, and added that the prefect of Varaždin has paid 10,000 kuna each year since 2020.

“This is how politicians who work and live in these areas imagine participating in the defense system in the future,” he stated.

Josip Salatko, the president of the Association of Croatian Hail Defense Rocket Launchers, called out the State Hydro Meteorological Institute for treating the hail defense system in an extremely step-motherly way.

Source: HRT