The wife of Prefect of Požega-Slavonia County was allegedly beaten by her husband.
Prefect of Požega-Slavonia County Alojz Tomašević issued a statement on Wednesday evening, presenting his response to the accusations made by his wife Mara about domestic violence. Tomašević apologised to the Croatian public due to what he describes as “numerous untruths” about him, adding that he was not even thinking about resigning from his post, reports Jutarnji List on October 5, 2017.
Tomašević admitted that the problems in his marriage existed, but added that they were verbal only and that his wife’s accusations had been turned into a “massive spread of disinformation.” He insisted he was not a bully and did not hit his wife, although she ended up in a hospital with injuries.
“I want to say that I did not hit my wife. This fact is evident from the medical records of her examination at the Požega hospital. As expected, the whole situation is being exploited by opposing political groups which are spreading untruths and disinformation. Their motive for defamation is their political frustration due to losing elections in the past. The truth about what happened is known by my children, myself, and my wife, despite what she has said. I am sorry about the damage done to our family. I apologise to my friends from HDZ because these untruths are harming our party. As I have said earlier, there are some who are trying to achieve with manipulation and disinformation what they cannot achieve in legal way,” said Tomašević.
SDP and the Autonomous Women’s House of Zagreb demanded on Wednesday that Tomašević, whose wife reported him for domestic violence, should immediately resign.
Prime Minister and HDZ president Andrej Plenković confirmed on Wednesday that Tomašević’s wife wrote an e-mail earlier this year about domestic violence. Plenković said that his associates in the party did not pay particular attention to the e-mail and did not inform him about it, since they “obviously” did not perceive the e-mail as sufficiently relevant among numerous other e-mails which come daily to the party. He expressed his regret and added that he expected that the allegations would be investigated.
The HDZ National Council decided at an emergency telephone session to suspend the party branch in the Požega-Slavonia County.
Tomašević was detained by police on Monday on suspicion of domestic violence. His wife Mara Tomašević ended up in the hospital and later explained that her husband had subjected her to physical abuse for the last two years. She also said that she had sent two messages to HDZ president and Prime Minister Andrej Plenković to warn him about being mistreated by her husband, a high-ranking HDZ member.
It is expected that, if the allegations are proven to be true, HDZ will demand Tomašević to resign. However, there is no mechanism available for the party to dismiss the prefect who was directly elected at the local elections in May. The only option is for citizens of the county to start collecting signatures for a referendum for his dismissal, which is a rarely used mechanism for the recall of locally elected officials. The other possibility is for county assembly to reject prefect’s budget for next year, which would initiate new elections for both prefect and assembly. HDZ has recently drafted legislation which would make the removal of prefects and mayors even harder in the future, but it is possible that it will abandon its plans after this incident.
