The Deputy Speaker of Parliament and Vice-President of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), Vladimir Seks, on Wednesday evening dismissed a statement made by former Prime Minister and party colleague Ivo Sanader earlier in the day, saying that "Sanader hit rock bottom in yet another one of his shameful accusations."
Sanader said earlier on Wednesday that Seks and the incumbent Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor were behind a politically-orchestrated media campaign against him.
"Sanader said that I and the Prime Minister and president of the party, Jadranka Kosor, initiated political persecution against him, and that we were editing EPH publications, but it is well known that it was Sanader who was on good terms with columnists, journalists and editors of the EPH (newspaper publisher) and its Jutarnji List (daily)," Seks said, adding that he, unlike Sanader, never bribed media to write nicely about him.
Seks described Sanader's behaviour as "autistic and without a footing in the real world" and as "defensive reactions and tactics with a well-known scenario of lies, slanders and intrigues, which are part of his true nature."
He added that Sanader's "irrational behaviour" indicated that he was in a state of panic because he was feeling "the noose tightening around him."
Seks said that Sanader had come to power by resorting to similar "schemes and deceptions, setting people against each other."
When asked to comment on Sanader's accusations that he was now being "slagged off by those who used to extol" him, Seks said that it was actually Sanader who "is slagging himself off the most."
