ZAGREB, May 16, 2018 – Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Tuesday evening that a new economy minister would be nominated next week and the nomination would be put to a vote in parliament by the end of next week.
“The parliamentary majority is stable and the government continues doing its work. Next week we will nominate a new member of the government and he or she will be voted in by the end of next week. In other words, the government will be complete in terms of functioning of the Economy Ministry,” Plenković told the press after a meeting of the parliamentary group of his Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party.
As for the indebted Agrokor food and retail conglomerate, he said that the main goal was to reach a settlement with the creditors and he hoped this would be achieved by the legal deadline of July 10. “All these other things that need clarifying will be clarified in that process because it is in our interest that there are no shadows over this otherwise positive, bold and good undertaking,” the prime minister said.
Asked about his position in the HDZ, Plenković said he thought it was quite good, stressing that there was cohesion and unity within the party and that “it is the strongest when it should be.”
Asked if he was the next target after the resignation of his deputy and Economy Minister Martina Dalić, Plenković said it was clear that further blows would follow to prevent a settlement for Agrokor being reached. “This is the goal of one group of interested parties, while the other goal is of a political nature, to destabilise the government,” Plenković said, dismissing speculation that such blows would come from the HDZ.
Asked if he felt responsible in the so-called Hotmail Affair, which involves leaked emails between Dalić and the consultants and lawyers who had worked on drafting the law on Agrokor, the prime minister said that none of the emails was addressed to him. He said it was normal that his legal adviser had the draft bill in her email inbox in the week when the bill was to be passed and that relevant ministries gave their opinions on it.
Plenković said that, when comparing the present situation to that three months ago, a settlement agreement had been reached and the legal text of the settlement would be finalised by the end of the week. He recalled that the Constitutional Court had dismissed all initiatives for assessment of the constitutionality of the Agrokor law and that the European Commission had decided that this law should be part of a regulation on insolvency or bankruptcy laws in member states, whereby it would indirectly become part of the acquis communautaire.
“It is on these facts that we should build a positive story about Agrokor, which, I repeat, is one of the biggest restructuring efforts in Europe which requires certain knowledge and expertise, and such knowledge is not really available at a click in administration,” Plenković said.
