The Prime Minister announced on Thursday that he no longer has confidence in the Chief of the General Staff, Tihomir Kundega, following the latter's refusal to attend a meeting at the Banski Dvori.
The meeting, according to the Prime Minister, was intended to address the situation regarding the participation of Croatian soldiers in the French Bastille Day celebrations. "If Kundega had refused to come because President Milanović had ordered him to go to Slunj for a military exercise, that would have been a bad political and, in my view, professional assessment," said Plenković in an interview with HRT, stating that it was natural that confidence in Kundega had been lost after the incident.
He added that this did not mean withdrawing support from the Croatian Armed Forces. "These are two different things," he said, emphasising that the government was increasing the defence budget and investing in the modernisation of the armed forces. He stated that the conflict was not personal: "We have had an excellent relationship. This is nothing personal, it is just that he made a very wrong and bad decision and assessment at that moment."
The Prime Minister noted that President Milanović had restricted Kundega's movements for the second time, having previously prevented him from attending the Croatian Parliament when the NATO NSAP mission was being discussed. He described the entire situation as "a disgrace to Milanović" and Kundega's actions as "completely immature."
Plenković described Milanović's policy as "anti-Ukrainian, pro-Russian, and often anti-European, and frequently even anti-NATO," which, in his view, was leading Croatia into isolation. He rejected claims that anyone had proposed sending Croatian troops to Ukraine, calling it a "false issue" that had been circulating in the political sphere for three years.
In the same interview, he accused the opposition of obstructing the selection of the remaining three judges of the Constitutional Court and dismissed the possibility of early elections. On the eve of the tenth anniversary of his leadership, he stated that he felt "better than ever" and that the party had the strength for a fourth term.
