TV interview: Croatian president visits Hungary as friend

Budapest, October 8 (MTI) – The Croatian president said she came as a friend to Hungary, a neighbouring country that is her country’s friend.

The exchange of rhetoric on the migration issue has put relations between the countries to a stress to a certain degree, but this is only a “temporary” situation, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic told public news channel M1 in an exclusive interview late on Wednesday.

The president said that the tide of migrants had met Croatia unprepared even if it could be foreseen several months before.

“It must be admitted that Croatia’s system for handling migrants collapsed within a few hours,” she said.

“We have wasted several months. We should have coordinated preparations with the neighbouring countries, Macedonia, Serbia, Hungary, Slovenia and Austria, and others, as well as with Brussels,” Grabar-Kitarovic said.