Croatia issues €1.45 bn worth of treasury bonds at 0.75% interest rate

The Finance Ministry on Monday sold on the domestic capital market a new, 7-year treasury bond in the amount of €1.445 billion with a currency clause and an interest rate of 0.75%, the ministry said in a press release.

The latest bond issue has exceptionally favourable borrowing terms considering the current challenging market circumstances, the ministry added.

This successful issuance confirms Croatia's status as an attractive issuer and proves strong confidence by investors on the domestic capital market in the current extraordinary circumstances, the press release said.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic on Monday condemned and described as an act of cowardice President Zoran Milanovic's leaving a commemoration of the 1995 Operation Flash in Okucani, and condemned Social Democratic Party leader Davor Bernardic's insults against Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandrokovic.

Asked by reporters if he was bothered that Milanovic described as an act of cowardice his decision to stay at the commemoration after he was told that people wearing T-shirts with the Ustasha salute "For the homeland ready" had come to the event, Plenkovic said that Milanovic's departure from the event was an act of cowardice.

Speaking to reporters ahead of a session of the Presidency and National Council of his HDZ party, Plenkovic said that the SDP-led government of Ivica Racan in 2000 "had such a majority that it could have passed any law it wanted" but that instead of banning the salute, it did the opposite.

Racan's gov't legalised HOS coat-of-arms

"They legalised the coat-of-arms of one of the Croatian Defence Forces (HOS) associations containing the controversial salute. The majority Milanovic had as Prime Minister between 2011 and 2015 was such that they could have banned anything they wanted, but in talks with war veterans he insulted my mother and said, I quote, 'I could not care less about the For the Homeland Ready,'" said Plenkovic.

Plenkovic said that the HDZ and his government had condemned the criminal nature of the World War II Ustasha regime and the crimes committed in Jasenovac "on countless occasions" and that he had personally attended commemorations held there.

"I will not tolerate what is being imputed to me, this government or this HDZ. That must be clear to everyone," Plenkovic said, adding that voters would know who was causing divisions and who connected them and wanted to heal generational traumas of the Croatian people.

He also condemned SDP leader Davor Bernardic's statement on Sunday that Croatia must not be held hostage to the "For the homeland ready" salute and to "the indecisive Plekovic who hides behind his brown-noser Gordan Jandrokovic."

"I cannot recall any party leader ever before stooping to such a primitive type of public discourse," Plenkovic said, noting that after Bernardic's statement, dialogue with "the alleged leader of the Opposition" was hard to imagine.

Text: Hina

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