President Ivo Josipovic on Saturday dismissed speculations that there was some friction between the government and his office, stressing that there were no such problems that would call into question their cooperation and exercise of their constitutional powers.
Josipovic was talking to reporters at an event marking European Rare Diseases Day in Zagreb.
Asked in the light of his meeting with Opposition leaders on Friday if the present government could endure until the end of its term in office, Josipovic said it was his duty to cooperate with the government and that it would be in bad taste for him to speculate about the government's demise.
"It is in the nature of the Opposition to try to topple the government, but no such attempts were made in my office nor will they be. It's a place of cooperation with the government and a place where people who have something to say can meet. You saw that presidents of very different parties were in my office yesterday, from left-leaning to right-leaning and centrist, so obviously there were no attempts to topple the government," Josipovic said.
Commenting on the problem of providing guarantees to a Croatian consortium for the construction of a motorway in neighbouring Montenegro, Josipovic said that he and the government should do all in their power to help Croatian companies win business deals abroad because jobs and the future of Croatian companies depended on it.
"I'm sorry if that deal fails. I'd like the government to do its utmost, because the Office of the President cannot conduct economic policy by seeking guarantees, but it will extend political support," the President said.
Josipovic said he would ask all his advisers to submit their declarations of assets regardless of whether they were on his office's payroll or not. He added that this would not apply to members of the existing or future advisory councils.
