Journalist who uncovered the recent scandal at the Economy Ministry says the Plenković government is corrupt

On Tuesday the Croatian Prime Minister sacked his Economy and Sustainable Development Minister after the Nacional weekly published an audio recording of a conversation between the minister’s adviser and a local media outlet, in which the advisor allegedly offered to buy advertising space for state owned companies, under the condition that half of the funds are kicked back to his personal account.

Journalist Marin Vlahović, who uncovered the latest corruption scandal involving the Economy and Sustainable Development Ministry, that resulted in the sacking of minister Davor Filipović and his advisor Jurica Lovrinčević, appeared on Croatian Television on Wednesday night, where he called out Deputy Prime Minister and Veterans' Affairs minister Tomo Medved and characterized the government of Prime Minister Andrej Plenković as corrupt: “My first contacts were with Deputy Prime Minister Medved, who was asking me to stop commenting on some of his actions, and in a way offered me cooperation in return. However, there weren't any financial arrangements at the time.”

Minister Medved today rejected Vlahović's claims, saying that during his tenure as the head of the Petrinja and Zagreb earthquake reconstruction effort, he had contacted a lot of media calling for objective reporting on the reconstruction effort: “I was in contact with numerous media outlets, including the journalist in question, with the sole aim of discussing and calling for objective reporting. With disgust, I reject any insinuations that there was some kind of corruption at play, whether financial or other, with anyone.”

Medved went on to reiterate the HDZ party line that the entire issue was a planned political attack by the opposition MOST Party on the HDZ-led government of Andrej Plenković. For its part MOST has rejected this assessment.

Source: HRT