Croatian PM Claims Their Rafale Jets Better than Serbia’s

Andrej Plenkovic (BETAPHOTO/HINA/Zvonimir KUHTIC)

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic dismissed on Jan. 14 the claims by President Zoran Milanovic, who has stated that the government had not protected Croatia’s national interests when purchasing France’s Rafale warplanes, because they were also sold to Serbia, and claimed that Croatia’s jets were better equipped.

“The thesis that Milanovic is proposing is too late, completely unrealistic and, in principle, silly, because it changes nothing and only disturbs Croatia’s political and media environment, just so that we could listen to comments about being ‘stupid’ or something taking place at our expense,” Plenkovic told reporters in Zagreb after a session of the government.

The prime minister and the president of Croatia come from different political options and their relations have been particularly bad for years now, although, according to the Constitution of Croatia, the government and president form policies together in the fields of defense and foreign policy. In the recent months, Milanovic stated several times that France had “flogged used Rafales to Croatia” and sold new ones to Serbia, which is why Croatia now had to “buy new equipment” and that “allies do not behave in such a way.”

Plenkovic, who is the president of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union, has repeatedly dismissed Milanovic’s criticism about purchasing second-hand Rafales, claiming that they had been purchased in a transparent procedure and that the Rafales sold to Serbia do not have the same equipment as those sold to the allies in NATO.