Andrej Plenković

Croatia's Chief State Attorney, Drazen Jelenic, resigned on Wednesday after local media revealed that he is a member of the Freemasonry organization.

According to an MIA correspondent, the prosecutor resigned after a conversation he had with Justice Minister Drazen Bosnjakovic and after Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic's call to step down or otherwise be fired.

Prime Minister Ludovic Orban stressed, in Munich, the full legitimacy of Romania's aspirations for joining the Schengen area, given that our country has long met the technical criteria in this regard. The Romanian prime minister participated as a guest of honor on Sunday in the panel discussion "Eurovision Contest: A Europe That Protects", within the Munich Security Conference.

In a blow to Slovenia, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Justice, ECJ, on Friday said that it had no jurisdiction to rule on Slovenian claims that Croatia had violated European law by failing to implement a border arbitration ruling. The decision is final and there is no appeal.

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, who is also a leader of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, sacked Health Minister Milan Kujundzic on Tuesday after a series of media reports that he did not admit the true value of his real estate holdings.

"The minister was focused on topics that had nothing to do with what he was doing," Plenkovic told reporters.

Turning the Tables

The unexpected victory of Zoran Milanovic in the Presidential elections, the second round of which was concluded on January 5, has turned the tables on Croatian politics. The country is now braced for a period of strained cohabitation between President-elect Milanovic from the opposition SDP and the HDZ-led government of Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic.

Playing the Identity Card

In 2020, Montenegrin voters will go to the polls to elect a new Parliament and government. Elections must be held by October. Yet they will be closely watched for a number of reasons other than their actual outcome.

A Croatian political expert said Sunday's presidential election victory by the centre-left candidate, Zoran Milanovic, was to some extent a protest vote against his rival's "hard-core nationalist campaign".

Croatian political experts said the results of Sunday's first round of presidential elections in were predictable and in line with surveys conducted before the election.

"What happened was what we expected and what I predicted," political analyst Zarko Puhovski told BIRN on Monday.

Prime Minister Ludovic Orban, chairman of the National Liberal Party (PNL), is conducting on Wednesday and Thursday a visit to Zagreb, to participate in the EPP Congress, context in which he has scheduled meetings with several heads of government and high officials of the European Union.

Croatia's ruling party will host Europe's largest political bloc, the centre-right European People's Party, EPP, on Wednesday and Thursday in Zagreb, a major publicity event for Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic but one that has already caused some controversy.