Has Zoran Milanović resigned from the position of president of Croatia? No, that's not true: A video with an altered audio has been circulating, making the claim. Zoran Milanović has reiterated several times that he will not resign as president of Croatia. The Constitutional Court has warned him that he2024-04-16 cannot run as a candidate for prime minister and participate in elections with the opposition party, SDP, as he intends to, without resigning from the presidency.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) published on March 29, 2024, under the title "Milanović resigns," as translated from Croatian into English by Lead Stories staff.
It opened with President Milanović allegedly saying, as translated:
I officially resign from the position of President of the Republic of Croatia. I declare myself the president of Ohio, the land of the Rizzler, Skibidi toilets, Sigma, and so on. I am fed up with Croatia! Here, the rate of rizz and gyatt is too small, because of the HDZ. There is no hope for this country. I recommend everyone to come to Ohio, where we can together rizz up fish with a level 10 gyatt.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
The person who posted the video on TikTok is Ivan Pernar, former MP (archived here) and activist, who conducts his electoral campaign on TikTok. The Party of Ivan Pernar (archived here) has submitted candidate lists (archived here) and will participate in the upcoming parliamentary elections set for April 17, 2024.
The TikTok video is taken from a video originally posted on President Zoran Milanović's official Facebook profile on March 26, 2024, in which the President discussed greed as a strategic issue that the government of Croatia must address. Translated from Croatian to English by Lead Stories staff, in the original video Milanović said:
Plenković has done nothing to put an end to it, as addressing this requires a slight confrontation with foreign retail chains and banks, not much - just a little. However, as he unquestionably nods in Brussels, he nods to the banks. This must be stopped; the state has the means to control the inflation of greed and the financial exploitation of the Croatian people. If we do not act on this, I fear to imagine how Croatia would look after 12 years of Plenković's and HDZ's rule.
The TikTok video uses the same background and the same images as the original, with an altered audio voice, which is slightly different from that of President Milanović. In the altered TikTok audio, President Milanović is heard announcing his resignation and talking about the Skibidi Toilet games (archived here). Players engage in a shooting game where they protect themselves from the menacing Skibidi Toilets and their companions, the Cameramen. The voice-over uses gamers' slang and language (archived here), and alludes to popular memes, so the effect of the claim in the TikTok video is clearly fun and meaningless for those unfamiliar with the slang.
Croatian President Zoran Milanović (archived here) called a parliamentary election for April 17 (archived here) on March 15, 2024. Still, hours later, in a surprise move (archived here), he announced that he would run for prime minister with the opposition Social Democratic Party. On March 18, 2024, the Constitutional Court (archived here) warned President Milanović that he could only run for prime minister if he resigned from his current position as president. Nevertheless, President Milanović, despite not being on the electoral list, and officially not being a candidate, continues to travel and encourages citizens to come out in large numbers to vote for anyone, just not for the ruling HDZ Party. President Milanović is claiming that if the coalition River of Justice (archived here) led by the Social Democratic Party manages to gather a majority of signatures to form a government, he will resign and be the prime minister.
On March 24, 2024, five days before Ivan Pernar published this video, Zoran Milanović posted on his Facebook profile (archived here) another statement (translated from Croatian to English by Lead Stories staff) in which he still opposed resigning: "Normally, I will not resign because I will not leave Croatia to Plenković and his criminal organization. It is my responsibility and duty to the citizens who elected me, as well as to all those who do not want to suffer Plenković's dictatorship, to prevent the HDZ from completely taking over Croatia. As President of the Republic, I managed to save at least some institutions from Plenković and his ilk for the past four years. Until now, we have defended the institutions, and now it is time to set them free!"
