Zoran Milanović takes oath, also mentions Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina

(Patria) - Croatian President Zoran Milanović has taken the oath for his second five-year term. The inauguration at the President's Office on Pantovčak was attended by about a hundred guests, including four vice-presidents of the Parliament, but no one from the Croatian Government.

Milanović was elected Croatian president for the second time a little over a month ago, on January 12, when he defeated his opponent Dragan Primorac in the second round.

For his new term as Croatian president, Milanović took the oath before the president of the Constitutional Court. After reciting the text of the oath, the Croatian president also signed it.

This protocol was followed by the inaugural speech.

Milanović stated that the alternation of good and bad days is inevitable and that awareness of this guarantees composure regardless of the direction and size of the waves.

“The primary task of state institutions is to preserve the peace of citizens. The second goal is that difficult times should not be dramatic and should not break on the backs of the weakest. Inequality and corruption insidiously erode the social structure like a malignant disease,” said Milanović, adding that “only we care about our country.”

“Other countries do not wish us harm, but in choosing between their interests and our well-being, they will always decide for their own interests. This is not a lament or criticism, this is the reality of the world we live in and a call to stop deluding ourselves with illusions. Nothing has been given to us; everything Croatia has achieved is the merit of our people, primarily those who gave their lives. That debt can never be fully repaid,” he added.

He also mentioned the media, as well as Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“Who besides us cares about Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina? Who besides us will advocate for the defense of their constitutional status? Strength lies in knowing one's own weaknesses. There is hardly a greater weakness than hatred, chauvinism, and distrust towards those who are different from us, temporarily or permanently. There are few things as wrong as glorifying the darkest episodes of one's own history,” Milanović believes.

“This is a house for all of us,” he repeated today the sentence he uttered at Pantovčak five years ago.

“The peace, security, and stability of Croatian people will not be sacrificed to anyone's ambitions or fixations,” he said.

“Political adventurism and blind following have cost us in the past. Our obligation to our ancestors and children is to advocate for peace in international relations. That is not naivety, it is not a betrayal of the Western alliances to which we belong and will belong; it is a fight for our own interests. War is the deepest and most toxic disorder; it is not said in vain that victory is the second worst thing that can happen in war,” says Milanović.

He emphasized that the Croatian army must be capable of fulfilling its obligations and stopping any attack on integrity.

“I do not agree with the thesis that security has no price,” he says.

“I want us to be insightful and calculating,” Milanović stated, emphasizing that gullibility and panic are never good allies, especially not in the turbulent times we live in.