The Social Welfare Center in Zagreb again rejected the foster care application submitted by Ivo Šegota and Mladen Kožić, who are life partners in Croatia. By doing so, they have completely disregarded the Croatian Administrative Court's December 2019 binding judgment, which allowed the couple to become foster parents after a long two-year court battle.

UPDATE: Mladen Kožić and Ivo Šegota give interviews to RTL Direkt and HRT on January 28, 2020. More information here.

Couple Had Started Preparing Home for Children

“We're shocked. After the December verdict, we had started planning how we would prepare our home for children, and I had already announced to my boss that, as soon as children arrived, I would be taking a long-term unpaid leave. And then a decision from the center arrives stating that they will not respect the court's decision. For the first half hour I kept saying, "But how is this possible?" And then I reminded myself that this is another small obstacle that Ivo and I will have to overcome together. We’ll go forward patiently and continue learning and developing our parenting skills. Giving up is not an option,” said Mladen Kožić.

He added that he will appeal this unexpected decision, which came with an even more unexpected explanation, with his partner. In fact, the decision literally states that "this body could not arrive at a decision that is based on the application of legal provisions but is based on the opinion of the court." Read more via Total Croatia News