The Coning company took an absolutely regular loan in accordance with all rules, and offered a bank security and a mortgage 25 times higher than that security, Croatian People's Party (HNS) president Radimir Cacic said on Wednesday, commenting on media reports that the Varazdin-headquartered company, of which he was one of the founders, had been granted a loan, perceived by the media as a high-risk one, from the Croatia Osiguranje insurance company ahead of the parliamentary elections.
"All things are absolutely and in every aspect beyond any doubt," Cacic, a future Deputy Prime Minister, said after today's ceremony at which President Ivo Josipovic gave the mandate to the Social Democratic Party (SDP) leader, Zoran Milanovic, to form a new government.
Cacic said that everybody in Croatia should follow the example of Coning when it came to how to do business.
I think that the role of the media is to cover events and write fairly and not to sling mud at people, the HNS chief said.
He also criticised an article in the daily press reporting that earlier this year the wife of an HNS member was employed as an accountant in Croatia Osiguranje.
He wondered whether this meant that "all HNS members, their wives and children should be euthanised," lashing out at the reporters present.
"Aren't you ashamed? ... Scandalous," he said.
Asked about the questionable loan to the Coning company, Prime Minister-designate Milanovic said that this was a normal arrangement in business circles.
"What is important to me, if I have understood correctly, is that the security given by the bank and the real estate given as security exceeded several times the value of the loan, with a one to ten ratio," he added.
