Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said on Monday the president of the HSP AS party, Ruza Tomasic, who was elected as a Croatian member of the European Parliament in Sunday's election, was worse than a natural disaster and that she was a social disaster, adding that he would resolutely fight against that and other social disasters such as corruption.
Responding to a Nova TV reporter's remark that he could not describe as a natural disaster a person whom Croatian citizens had elected to the Croatian and European parliaments, Milanovic said "someone who is capable of saying, very perfidiously, that members of other (ethnic groups) are guests in Croatia... which had a war, that's a social disaster for me."
Noting that citizens in many countries "elect all sorts of things", he said Tomasic's statements were "evil and negative" and that he realised "that some people in Croatia applaud them, but the big majority disapprove and many are disgusted."
When the reporter reiterated that Tomasic was an elected MP, Milanovic said nobody had reacted when she insulted one of his colleagues from parliament on a TV station. He said he had to do so, that it was his mission and that he would continue to do so, adding that he could not "be the colleague of a person who can do something so cold and calculating" and that he still thought "the worst" of Tomasic.
Speaking of Sunday's EP election, Milanovic said his Social Democratic Party received the most seats and that its candidate won the highest number of preferred votes. He said any analysis was pointless because the turnout was only 20 per cent.
Commenting on the reporter remark that foreign media had described the election as his personal defeat, Milanovic said, "of course, because I am the president of the party and the prime minister," but added that when it lost, the SDP lost by the narrowest margin and when it won, it was a landslide victory.
