Question time

PM says HDZ won't stop until SDP thieves brought to justice

28.09.2011 u 13:03

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Asked by Social Democratic Party (SDP) MP Zeljko Jovanovic on Wednesday if she agreed with him that it was high treason if it was proven to be true that former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader took a EUR 10 million bribe to give Hungarian oil company MOL management rights in Croatia's INA, PM Jadranka Kosor said she did not agree with him on anything.

Jovanovic asked Kosor during Question Time in parliament if it was true that she, the entire presidency of the ruling HDZ party and the government knew that in voting for Sanader's INA-MOL proposal, they were selling Croatia's vital energy interests to another country.

"I don't and will never agree with you on anything, because your rhetoric, your political statements, the tolerance of thieves in your ranks and attacks only on others are unbearable," said Kosor.

She wondered why the findings of an investigation into the Trznice Rijeka fresh produce market operator were still unknown, saying an audit showed that the City of Rijeka spent HRK 149 million illegally in previous years and HRK 34 million in 2010.

"Deputy Jovanovic has no answer to that because he thinks that if it is done by the SDP, then it's acceptable," said Kosor.

She said her government made it possible for INA to pay a HRK 2 billion debt to the state, solving many issues in the Croatian Roads and Croatian Motorways companies.

Kosor said that as the head of the executive authority, she could not comment on the investigation into the INA-MOL case, "but rest assured that I personally and everyone in power will help shed light on all the facts of how you sold 25 per cent plus one share in INA below the price."

"We will push for shedding light on all the facts of your sale of INA and deficit financing at a time when there was no crisis, and you sold everything that you could, for which you will one day be held to account before relevant institutions," Kosor told the SDP, the strongest opposition party.

Jovanovic said the decisions on INA from Sanader's term in office were not made by him alone but with the support of the HDZ presidency and the entire government.

Speaker Luka Bebic urged MPs to refrain from making judgements before courts handed down their verdicts. "The term high treason, if we are a democracy, deserves and is conditional on the presentation of evidence and a final verdict," he said.

Kosor also told the SDP her party would not stop until all thieves, including those from the SDP and the other parties in the opposition coalition, were brought to justice.

Ingrid Anticevic-Marinovic of the SDP asked her if everyone who acted like Mladen Barisic, the former Customs chief and HDZ accountant, should be fired, even if they were HDZ members.

She described as a deception Kosor's statement that the SDP was announcing that, if it came to power, every HDZ member would lose their job, saying Kosor certainly was not deceived when told by the union in the Customs Administration as well as others about Barisic's unlawful activities in the Customs Administration.

"We won't stop until all thieves are brought to justice and you won't succeed in your intention to prevent the thieves from the SDP or the HNS or some other party from your coalition from being brought to justice," responded Kosor.

She said Slavko Linic of the SDP recently announced that 80 per cent of those employed in the state administration, not only HDZ members but all those who "aren't for you and your methods", would be laid off and ousted from their positions, and that SDP leader Zoran Milanovic confirmed this.

Kosor said Ranko Ostojic of the SDP told the media the SDP would come to power with "razor in hand." "We haven't had that in the history of democracy yet, that a member of a party ... should announce coming to power and dealing with those who think differently with razor in hand. That time is over. We aren't afraid of razors or axes or lynching or imprisonment or courts-martial because Croatia is a European democracy."

Kosor told the SDP their announcements, that they would watch what the State Prosecutor's Office and the courts were doing and based on that assess who would keep their position, would not pass, "because the time of communism passed a long time ago."

Anticevic-Marinovic said claiming that everyone was the same "is the last defence of the corrupt," adding that the bad situation in Croatia was not only due to this government's incompetence but also its "lies".