HDZ and opposition accuse each other of being responsible for recent corruption case at the Economy Ministry

Following Tuesday’s sacking of the Economy Minister Davor Filipović for alleged corruption at the highest levels of his ministry, the HDZ has floated the theory that the root of the corruption case is actually linked to the MOST opposition party. On the other hand the SDP is calling for parliament to be dissolved in the wake of the revelations.

Opening Wednesday's cabinet session Prime Minister Andrej Plenković rejected opposition comparisons between the Filipović case and previous corruption scandals involving the HDZ, such as Fimi Media: “We reject outright the opposition's false theories regarding this situation whereby they are comparing to previous corruption cases such as Fimi Media, the activities of one person - who did not have a mandate, an appointment from the government or anyone in the government, and who is also not a member of the HDZ. Not only because they are not true, but because it is clear that the goal of this entire operation was exclusively to do political damage, and to ultimately topple the government. This, in reality is their scandal, a scandal that does not involve a single member of the HDZ, which is the most interesting point.”

HDZ MPs and cabinet officials were all singing from the music sheet on Wednesday, suggesting that the root of the corruption case is actually linked to the MOST opposition party, specifically MOST MP Nikola Grmoja. Senior HDZ official and Deputy Parliament Speaker Ante Sanader: “In reality Lovrinčević worked for Grmoja. That's the key message here. Grmoja is clearly involved in corruption here.”

Meanwhile, the opposition, led by the SDP, is demanding the dissolution of the Parliament. SDP Party President Peđa Grbin: “The fact is that Croatia is once again, fifteen years after Fimi Media, is confronted with the exact same pattern of behavior. One that is more akin to a mafia organization than a well-organized political party.”

In the wake of Filipović's dismissal, President Zoran Milanović's energy advisor Julije Domac said that the implementation of major energy sector projects is all but non-existent. Domac argues that Croatia should be doing more to invest into renewable sources of energy and openly questioned Prime Minister Andrej Plenković's claims that Croatia will become an energy hub in southeast Europe: “To be honest I'm not sure that I'm seeing a large enough number of large scale energy projects. I think that this story that Croatia will somehow become an energy hub in southeast Europe is standing on wobbly legs. I also think that this idea of an energy hub should be based to a far greater extent on renewable sources of energy, on electrical, transport networks, smart networks, and maybe on battery systems, as well as pumped-storage or reversible hydro-electric stations. These are all large scale projects, that so far our electric utility HEP is doing little of. HEP's investments into solar stations of five, six or seven megawatts, are insufficient. These projects are not worthy of the national electric utility, which needs to undertake much bigger projects.”

Source: HRT