Deputy Prime Minister Milanka Opacic said in Parliament on Thursday that the government supported Science, Education and Sport Minister Zeljko Jovanovic and believed that he was doing a good job.
"As for public statements, there are, of course, harsh words and wrong interpretations by those who report about what we are saying," Opacic said, adding that the government did not agree with a vote of no confidence in Minister Jovanovic.
"We cannot accept a spoken word to be the reason for replacing someone or giving them a vote of no confidence. On the other hand, one should be responsible for what one says, but one also must have morality and be aware of what some individuals were doing, how much harm they caused to citizens and why today we are in a very difficult financial situation," she said.
She expressed hope that the discussion on the motion by the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) to give Jovanovic a vote of no confidence would be held in a democratic atmosphere and that most MPs would support the minister.
Addressing the MPs, Jovanovic said that his term as minister was not the campaign of a future presidential candidate and that he would continue to speak the truth which he said some would not like.
He said that his goal was to introduce the culture of success in his sector, which would change the Croatian society into a healthy society. Expert groups have been set up to work on a new strategy for the development of education based on which new legislation would be drawn up, he said.
"When it comes to science and knowledge, I will not look back at what was before because it is irrelevant now," he said, adding that the centre-left coalition won the elections because it had a better platform, including science and education.
"We lag behind the EU according to all indicators," he said and added: "Only 18 percent of the active population have a university degree, there are 2,350 researchers per one million people, we allocate less than 1 percent of GDP for science and research, and the number of people with a PhD degree in the active population is 0.67 percent."
Responding to Jovanovic's speech, HDZ leader Jadranka Kosor told Deputy Parliament Speaker Nenad Stazic, "Please warn the minister that he is not in a hen-house and that he should behave himself."
"The ruling coalition kept its platform under wraps, you deceived citizens and failed to tell them that you would appoint politically suitable people to the supervisory boards of public companies, your card-player buddies, people against whom indictments have been issued or who have been sentenced pending appeal," Kosor told Jovanovic.
