ZAGREB, April 13, 2018 – The Croatian parliamentary Opposition on Friday failed to topple Economy Minister Martina Dalić and she will continue to be a member of the Andrej Plenković government.
The opposition motion to give Dalić a vote of no confidence was supported by 71 MPs while 76 voted against.
Hrvoje Zekanović of the HRAST party kept his promise of two days ago, when he left the ruling coalition over his disagreement with the government’s plan to have the Istanbul Convention ratified, and withheld support for Dalić.
Italian minority MP Furio Radin, who is a member of the parliamentary majority, did not attend the vote.
The motion to replace Dalić was signed by 37 members of six opposition parliamentary groups and independent MPs.
They criticised Dalić over a scandal involving a consulting firm hired to provide services in the restructuring of the debt-laden Agrokor conglomerate by Agrokor’s former emergency administrator Ante Ramljak, who, they said in a debate on Thursday, was her choice and her responsibility.
Ramljak stepped down after it was made known that he had hired his former employer, Texo Management company, to provide consulting services in Agrokor for almost one million kuna a month, and the scandal took on a new dimension after a document was leaked showing that, until April 30, 2017, Ramljak was still formally an employee of Texo Management even though the government appointed him as Agrokor’s emergency administrator on April 10, 2017.
The government dismissed the opposition’s claims against Dalić as unfounded.
