Vladimir Ferdelji, who has been relieved of his duties as Assistant Minister of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure, said in an interview on Saturday that he would not take the six monthly salaries to which he was entitled as a former government official.
"I won't take those salaries. If you don't work, you can't be paid for it," Ferdelji said in an interview with Zagreb's Radio 101, commenting on Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic's apology to the public that Ferdelji would be entitled to receive his salary for another six months although he would not be working.
Ferdelji was relieved of his duties at a government session on January 26 after he told media that the government did not have the courage for drastic spending cuts in the public sector. The prime minister criticised him for lack of loyalty and for "breaking ranks with the team."
Ferdelji, a successful businessman, said in the interview that a team actually never existed. "Team work implies the existence of a team. Prime Minister Milanovic and I never met, let alone worked together in a team," he said.
Speaking of the interview which had prompted his dismissal, Ferdelji said: "When a journalist asks me something, I usually say what I think. I don't think that's bad. Quite the contrary, I think it's good, it's the basis of democracy."
Ferdelji served as assistant minister only for about three weeks.
