Prime Minister Milanović off to Australia & New Zealand

Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanović’s upcoming visit to Australia and New Zealand later this month has been met with widespread criticism both at home and abroad in Australia…

Milanović will head off on his southern hemisphere sojourn with Croatia’s Minister of Defence Ante Kotromanović and their respective wives for a 13-day working visit, but the timing of the trip has not gone down well with critics in Croatia.

“Travelling to far away Australia is not even close to having empathy for the current sociopolitical situation in (Croatia),”  Political Professor Anđelko Milardović told daily Slobodna Dalmacija.

Although official numbers have yet to be released, the trip is expected to cost the Croatian tax payer more than 100,000 kuna for the 13-day visit. It is not only in Croatia that the trip has been met with criticism. There are even campaigns in Australia from parts of the Croatian community there to boycott the visit, with the Croatian Prime Minister not a popular man down under. Milanović will visit Canberra, Sydney, and Melbourne in Australia, before going to Wellington and Auckland in New Zealand. It is the first time a Croatian Prime Minister has visited both of those nations, where more than 300,000 people with Croatian ancestry reside.