The chief of the ruling HDZ's parliamentary caucus, Andrija Hebrang, said on Friday that independent MP Ivo Sanader's request for the establishment of a commission to investigate former Economy Minister Damir Polancec's allegations about a deal made with Parliament Deputy Speaker Vladimir Seks was an attempt to stop the fight against crime and Croatia's road to the European Union.
"Requesting a commission of inquiry at a time when the prime minister has given fierce support for the fight against crime means stopping the fight against corruption as well as Croatia's road to the EU," Hebrang said.
He said he was surprised that Sanader, a former PM and HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union) leader, did not attend last week's parliamentary vote on confidence in the PM, while suddenly showing up in parliament today, a day after former customs chief Mladen Barisic allegedly accused him before the Office for the Suppression of Corruption and Organised Crime.
Hebrang said the statement that Seks, a HDZ vice president, abused the judiciary was a self-accusation because Sanader was his superior for 10 years.
Commenting on Sanader's statement that PM Jadranka Kosor was incapable of running the government, Hebrang said this came from a man who abandoned the country which he had brought into a crisis with which he, unlike Kosor, had not had the strength to deal with.
Croatia does not benefit from such a statement, coming when all economic indicators are improving, said Hebrang.
Sanader resigned as PM and HDZ leader in the summer of 2009 and was replaced by Kosor. He was expunged from the HDZ in January 2010.
