Milanovic: Croatia's Prices Are Spiraling Out of Control

Croatian President Zoran Milanovic said on Wednesday, September 23, that prices in his country are spiraling out of control, and used the moment to publicly raise, for the first time, the idea of Croatia building its own nuclear power plant. He made the remarks at the “Day of Great Plans” conference, organized by the weekly Lider in Zagreb, and his words quickly drew attention well beyond Croatia’s borders. Rising prices and energy dependence on Brussels have become a regional talking point in recent months, Serbia included.

“Here, prices have simply started running wild, and it’s slowly spinning out of control,” Milanovic said at the Day of Great Plans conference in Zagreb.

The Croatian president backed up his assessment with a personal example. He said he had recently spoken with Croatians who have lived in Canada for years, and that they told him nothing in Croatia is cheaper than in the country where they now live. He called that fact deeply discouraging for doing business in Croatia. He also brought up the country’s average, or median, salary, which stands at around 1,500 euros, and questioned how much that amount can actually buy.

“What can you actually buy with that money?” Milanovic asked at the Day of Great Plans conference in Zagreb.

Why he brought up a nuclear power plant

From prices, the Croatian president moved on to energy, which he sees as part of the same problem. In his view, Croatia should have started seriously considering the construction of its own nuclear power plant long ago, since it would solve the country’s energy supply problem.

“We should have already started thinking about building a nuclear plant,” Milanovic said at the Day of Great Plans conference in Zagreb.

With that, the Croatian president joined a growing chorus of European officials openly presenting nuclear energy as an answer to high electricity bills and reliance on imports. He did not announce any concrete project, site or timeline, saying only that the debate should begin.

Harsh words for the European Union

Milanovic did not spare the European Union either. He described Brussels as an undemocratic creation, adding that it leans neither left nor right politically. For the same reason, he warned that Croatia must avoid the mistakes some Western European countries have made, in his view, in how they treat foreign workers, without specifying which mistakes he meant.

The combination, rising domestic prices, energy dependence and criticism of EU institutions, was part of a single appearance in which the Croatian president tried to tie an everyday problem facing citizens to the bigger picture of Croatia’s standing in the European Union. A similar mix of themes, price growth alongside energy security, is also present in debates in Serbia, even though Belgrade, unlike Zagreb, is not an EU member and has no obligation to align its energy policy with Brussels.

Croatian media reported the statement without any indication that a concrete bill or investment plan would follow, leaving it open whether the nuclear power plant debate Milanovic launched in Zagreb will continue in the coming weeks, or remain confined to a single conference remark.