Croatia banned three prominent Montenegrin politicians from entering the country on Thursday over their support for a controversial Holocaust resolution.
The Croatian Foreign Ministry informed Podgorica in a note to the Montenegrin Embassy in Zagreb that the pro-Serb President of the Montenegrin Parliament Andrija Mandić, Aleksa Bečić, deputy prime minister of Montenegro, and Montenegrin MP Milan Knežević were unwelcome in Croatia.
They were declared personae non gratae “due to systematic actions to disrupt good neighborly relations with the Republic of Croatia and continuous abuse of the Republic of Croatia for internal political purposes,” the ministry said in a statement, referring to a resolution adopted in Montenegro’s parliament in June condemning a World War II death camp in Nazi-allied Croatia.
Zagreb sharply criticized the resolution at the time, warning it would damage relations between the two countries and impede Montenegro’s hopes of joining the European Union, and vowing consequences. European Council President Charles Michel canceled a trip to Podgorica in solidarity with Croatia.
Mandić introduced the resolution, and Bečić and Knežević’s parties supported it, after the U.N. General Assembly passed a separate resolution condemning the Srebrenica genocide committed against Bosniaks by Serbia. Croatia supported that resolution.
The trio’s “behavior cannot be considered benevolent … nor is it in accordance with the declared goal of Montenegro’s membership in the European Union,” Croatia’s Foreign Ministry added Thursday.
Bečić slammed the ban as unfair, claiming “there are other presidents of parties who voted and are members of the Government” who weren’t the subject of Zagreb’s reprisals. “So there’s obviously no criteria,” he said.
Knežević said that he would have to cancel a planned vacation in Rovinj, a popular Croatian coastal city. “My wife will kill me,” he joked.Mandić and Knežević’s parties joined the Montenegrin government earlier this week in a Cabinet restructure.
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