ZAGREB, June 27, 2019 – Some of the opposition parties in the Croatian parliament on Wednesday called for the dismissal of Public Administration Minister Lovro Kuščević over his failure to declare his property holdings.
Social Democratic Party MP Peđa Grbin said that this was not just about two properties which the minister failed to register, but that Kuščević was a government official who had created a system marred by nepotism and corruption.
“This is a politician who extracted real estate from companies that later ended up in bankruptcy, while he made millions out of them, or as much money as they owed before going bankrupt. This is a politician who changed urban development plans so that his family and friends could rake in a lot of money,” Grbin said, calling on the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party to “protect the minimum of decency and sack Kuščević.”
Nikola Grmoja of the MOST party also called for Kuščević’s resignation. “In a normal country, a scandal like this would result in the minister’s resignation, but not in Plenković’s Croatia, because if he applied such criteria he would have to renounce half his ministers.”
Asked to comment on this matter in an interview with Croatian Radio on Wednesday morning, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said that all allegations in the media against his ministers refer to the time before they became members of his government. As for Kuščević and his failure to enter his property in the land register, Plenković said: “This is not good, but it is certainly not so huge that it could jeopardise his human and political integrity as a minister.”
More news about the administration minister can be found in the Politics section.
