Leaders of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party held a news conference in Zagreb on Tuesday afternoon, calling on Social Democrat member of Parliament Zeljko Jovanovic, who chairs the National Council monitoring the implementation of the anti-corruption campaign, to resign so that the Council could work free of bias instead of being used, as they said, for the purpose of political promotion of the Social Democratic Party (SDP).
Earlier in the day, Jovanovic told a news conference in Rijeka that the HDZ's "story of zero tolerance to corruption is flimsy because the government represents a textbook example of clientelism and political corruption."
HDZ first vice-president and Health Minister Darko Milinovic said that the SDP was terrified of the phrase "no statute of limitations", wondering if some SDP members "are sensing that the anti-corruption campaign is not waning and that no one is above the law."
He said that this was probably the reason why Jovanovic was afraid, adding that an audit had revealed the illegal spending of 149 million kuna from the budget of the City of Rijeka.
Jovanovic is Deputy Mayor of Rijeka.
"Or possibly because they bypassed the Public Procurement Act in cases worth more than 16 million kuna," Milinovic said, citing also suspicions about the illegal privatisation of the Trznice Rijeka green market operator and a drastic rise in the cost of construction of a local swimming pool.
The HDZ official also accused Jovanovic of having lobbied for a pharmaceutical company in his capacity as a member of the Rijeka Hospital Steering Board, wondering how Jovanovic acquired two apartments in Rijeka worth around EUR 360,000 or HRK 610,000 worth of INA shares.
Another HDZ vice-president, the Minister of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure, Bozidar Kalmeta, said the SDP felt intimidated by the recent successful government reshuffle and was bent on toppling the government in order to stop the anti-corruption drive.
Asked if the HDZ should hold intra-party elections before parliamentary elections scheduled for the end of this year, Milinovic said that the HDZ leadership did not discuss a party election.
Asked about allegations about slush funds in the HDZ, the party's secretary-general and minister of environmental protection, Branko Bacic, said that there had been absolutely no slush funds in the HDZ since the appointment of Jadranka Kosor as HDZ president and his appointment as HDZ secretary-general. The party's operations are absolutely in line with the law, he said.
