Croatia’s Prime Minister Talks Oil Drilling with ‘Clean Adriatic’ Supporters in Seattle

SEATTLE – On Sunday, September 28, 2014 supporters of the Clean Adriatic Sea Alliance (CASA) waited for the Croatian Prime Minister, Zoran Milanovic, and his party to arrive at the ship wharf on Lake Union, for a chance to speak with him about Croatia’s Adriatic drilling plans.

As Prime Minister Milanovic approached the wharf to attend a reception organized by the Seattle Croatian community, CASA supporters held up a banner that read in English and Croatian respectively: “WELCOME PM Milanovic – When you return home please don’t drill the Croatian Adriatic Sea!” | DOBRODOŠLI premijeru Milanović – Kad se vratite kući, molimo Vas nemojte dozvoliti bušenje NAŠEG Jadrana”

CASA supporters waved to the Prime Minister and greeted him as he walked down the path in front of them towards the Virginia V Steamship. Sam Evich, CASA’s founder, spoke out: “Dobrodošli! Could we ask you a few questions?”

Mr. Milanovic turned and answered in the affirmative, while stopping his entire entourage to approach the group of supporters. The Prime Minister spent several minutes speaking with Mr. Evich and the CASA supporters with HRT (Hrvatska radiotelevizija – Croatian radio-television) cameras pointed in their direction.

“Mr. Milanovic was kind enough to stop and answer our questions”, said Mr. Evich. “However, we are extremely disappointed that he continues to express that he is powerless over the reality of the situation. We urged the Prime Minister to stand up and protect Croatia’s heritage which is so strongly tied to the clean, healthy ecosystem of the Adriatic Sea. I expressed to him my sadness that the drilling plans are seriously threatening my Croatian heritage, being from a Dalmatian family, and all the people of Croatia that are connected to the sea. He tried to calm our worries of environmental risk or disaster by saying that mostly gas would be extracted, and I informed him that this is still an extremely dirty process of extraction that pollutes our oceans.”

“I would hope that Mr. Milanovic, as the Prime Minister of Croatia, would fight for his own belief that there should be no drilling in the Adriatic Sea, as it is aligned with not only the health of his people, the health of the region, but also the health of the world. We urge him to listen to his country’s citizens and stand by them in rejecting these flawed plans in the coming days.”

Photo by Ryan Chittum on Twitter: