ZAGREB, July 9, 2019 – Members of parliament on Tuesday discussed the resignation of Public Administration Minister Lovro Kuščević, with the opposition saying he was not the only one, and the ruling HDZ party responding that they would not be lectured on morals by those who did not have the right to do so.
“If Kuščević were the only one, that would be news, but he isn’t,” said Mirando Mrsić on behalf of the HSS-Democrats caucus.
The HDZ holds Croatia firmly in “the shackles of conflict of interest, corruption and nepotism” which began with former president and HDZ leader Franjo Tuđman in the 1990s, he added.
Kuščević resigned last night as public administration minister and HDZ political secretary in the wake of alleged scandals involving real estate on the island of Brac.
Mrsić said Kuščević resigned “only because he let himself be caught and so as not to compromise other compromised ministers and the prime minister, who knows everything and is doing nothing about it.”
Mrsić said Labour and Pension System Minister Marko Pavić, Agriculture Minister Tomislav Tolušić, Regional Development and EU Funds Minister Gabrijela Žalac, and State Assets Minister Goran Marić should also resign because of the scandals they were involved them.
He called them “vermin that are irreversibly destroying the future of this country, and they are all protected by the prime minister who is fighting tooth and nail to land a job outside of Croatia.” He said it was time PM Andrej Plenković resigned and that “elections are Croatia’s only option.”
Božo Petrov of the MOST caucus said Plenković “can do what he wants but not as long as he wants.” He said Kuščević did not resign out of political and moral responsibility but to minimise the media damage his case was causing the HDZ.
“One gets the impression that Kuščević is leaving as an innocent man who doesn’t deserve any criticism, and this is the message this government is sending,” Petrov said, wondering how a person who was not honourable enough to be a minister was honourable enough to be an MP.
“The Croatian parliament is not a reformatory,” he said, adding that what Kuščević had done was unacceptable and that the people would be able to have its say in elections.
The rest of us have to show citizens that corruption and clientelism cannot rule Croatia. That must end. We either stamp out corruption and clientelism or we eventually disappear as a nation, Petrov said.
Speaking on behalf of the HDZ caucus, Branko Bačić said the “usual moralists in parliament” were using defamation and unfounded accusations to inflict political damage on the HDZ, the government and the prime minister, but “they won’t succeed.”
He asked Mrsić where his “moral standards were” when his wife, while he served as a minister, “owed a huge amount” to the Croatian Health Insurance Fund. “Why didn’t you talk then about moral standards and concern for state interests and, as a sign of responsibility, resign?”
Bačić accused Petrov of having tried to change the statute of Croatian Waters so that he could appoint a close friend to the company. “One should have the same approach and not demonise someone while passing over one’s own sins as though they never happened.”
He said it did not matter when Kuščević resigned but that the HDZ was setting high standards in Croatian politics. “But we won’t allow those without the moral right to do so, to attack the HDZ and give us moral slaps on the wrist here.”
More HDZ news can be found in the Politics section.
