“Croatia has seen many orchestrated actions, this is one of them,” he said in parliament during Question Time.
Plenković recalled that President Zoran Milanović had said in his presidential campaign that he would not use the institute of pardon and that he had not responded to any of the 275 pardon requests forwarded by the Justice Ministry.
Plenković said the government had no authority over the pardon requests for Perković and Mustač, former Yugoslav and Croatian intelligence officials. He said his HDZ party was against pardoning them.
“This is a big weakness of the one who had to submit the request, that’s the legal representative or the family, and perhaps mostly the weakness of the one who has been silent all the time and waiting to see what we will all say about it, that the one who, under the Constitution, is the only one authorised to grant pardons,” Plenković said, alluding to the president.
Commenting on MP Hrvoje Zekanović’s remark that Milanović was “the spokesman for the Kremlin,” Plenković said the Russian invasion of Ukraine began 56 days ago and that he sent a letter to Milanović on 24 February, requesting a session of the National Security Council.
“There has been no answer”, he said. “Croatia is the only EU member state whose National Security Council has not met since the aggression began”.
OECD accession
Responding to HDZ MP Gari Cappelli’s question about Croatia’s bid to join the (OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić Radman said it was one of the strategic priorities alongside joining the Schengen and euro areas.
“Joining the OECD would mean a lot for Croatia, first and foremost for national reform, for improving the investment climate and corporate management of state-owned companies, and for the fight against corruption in international business transactions”.
For more, check out our politics section.
