Croatian President Ivo Josipovic on Wednesday commented on a statement which Igor Cesek of the Croatian Democratic Party of Slavonia and Baranja (HDSSB) made in parliament earlier in the day, that Josipovic's father took possession of an apartment belonging to a Jewish family, when liberating Zagreb in 1945.
Josipovic said the claim was an "obvious lie" aimed at discrediting him personally as well as the institution of the President and the anti-fascist liberation movement.
During Question Time in parliament, Cesek asked Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic what his government was doing to enable the repossession of the property seized after the Second World War, to which the prime minister said that a difference should be made between seized and nationalised or confiscated property.
"Croatia has tried to put things in order here, but without much success in these past 20 years," Milanovic said.
Unhappy with the answer, Cesek said that the government should order President Ivo Josipovic to give back the apartment "which his father took possession of when liberating Zagreb in 1945," adding that the apartment had belonged to a Jewish family.
Josipovic said his parents lived in an apartment built after WWII, in the 1970s, which was purchased as a socially-owned flat. He added that he and his family lived in an apartment purchased in 2006 from a private owner.
Josipovic said that Cesek's statement was proof of how low politics can sink.
