Milanović and Plenković at odds over sending the Honor Guard Battalion to Paris

On Friday the Croatian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense announced that he would give his consent for the participation of the Croatian Army's Honor Guard Battalion in France's planned military parade in Paris on July 14th for Bastille Day celebrations.

Friday’s announcement by Defense Minister Ivan Anušić has led to another conflict between President Zoran Milanović and Prime Minister Andrej Plenković. Milanović announced on Monday that the army would not be sent anywhere without his order as Commander-in-Chief: “Who does Plenković plan on sending to Paris? Perhaps the majorettes, because without my permission soldiers cannot go. According to the Constitution and the law, the Croatian Armed Forces are represented by the Supreme Commander, at home and abroad. What's not clear here? So, I have to say it, it will be as I decide. If he wants to, he can don the uniform and carry the flag there. That I cannot stop, but we want respect, and relations will be reciprocal. Secondly, and this deals solely with our relations with France, Plenković said that French planes did a fly-over over Jarun a few days ago. Image, from up on high, they wave to us losers down here. But when we needed them to stand as our allies they were nowhere to be seen.”

Prime Minister Plenković responded immediately, claiming that the participation of the army in protocol events was not within the president's jurisdiction, and sent a clear ultimatum to the Chief of the General Staff of the Croatian Armed Forces: “Protocol-wise ceremonial visits of members of the Croatian army are not under his jurisdiction, but are under the jurisdiction of the Defense Minister. This isolationist policy that Milanović is pursuing, which has no other foothold other than him dancing to some Russian tune for the last five or six year, and which is obviously supported by some people in Croatia for reasons that are completely unclear to me - is a national disgrace. We will insist on this. Not because it is particularly important, but out of respect for the law. Specifically, from the head of the Croatian Armed Forces, the Chief of the General Staff, Mr. Tihomir Kundid, with whom I am on good terms and whom I otherwise respect. Should it occur that he issues some non-existent verbal order in this context, I say clearly here and now that if the Chief of the General Staff does not implement what Minister Anušić announced on Friday, from that moment on he will no longer have my trust and I will expect his resignation.”

Source: HRT