Serbian PM fails to inform official Zagreb of visit to Croatia

The Croatian portal said that Macut went to Dalj to receive a decoration from the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) Osijek and Baranja Bishopric and to Vukovar for a ceremony on Serbian Statehood Day. That eastern area of Croatia borders Serbia and has a large ethnic Serb population. Ethnic tensions have eased since the war of the 1990s but local Croatian nationalists have still repeatedly opposed the introduction of signs in Cyrillic script which Serb nationalists insist on using.

Macut told the ceremony that the Serb people, no matter where they are live in harmony with their neighbors and added that Serbia and the SPC guarantee they can live in peace in Croatia. Macut’s family origins are from the Kordun area of Croatia.

Dnevnik.hr reported Vukovar Mayor Marijan Pavlicek as saying that he doesn’t understand how no one informed the city authorities that the prime minister of a neighboring country is coming and added that everyone has the right to visit their own community. Minister of Croatian Veterans Tomo Medved said he knew Macut was coming but was not aware of any details of the visit which he said was not his first.