Within the next month, Parliament will vote about possible dismissal of First Deputy Prime Minister.
SDP president Zoran Milanović said on Wednesday that his party will file a motion of no confidence during the day against First Deputy Prime Minister and HDZ president Tomislav Karamarko due to business connections between his wife and Jozo Petrović, a lobbyist for Hungarian MOL. He added that he hoped to have the support of MOST, because “otherwise they would send a very clear message”, reports Novi List on May 18, 2016.
“I cannot and I will not say how many MPs will support the initiative for a no confidence vote, because as you know, it is necessary to have the majority. Therefore, the burden of proof is with the one who proposes such vote, and that is us. If we fail, at least we will know that he has his protectors”, said Milanović to reporters in Parliament.
He also confirmed that they had talked with MOST, but added that “unfortunately, we cannot talk about MOST as a single political entity”. He added that he hoped MOST would support their initiative. “We are talking here about an untenable relationship which does not even have anything to do with a conflict of interest. This is unsustainable and people who enter into such arrangements, and enter them with full awareness, should know that this is unacceptable,” said Milanović.
Asked if SDP would try to establish a parliamentary committee of inquiry, Milanović said there was nothing to investigate in this case. “It is clear what was going on and no one can pretend to be naive and say they would exempt themselves from making decisions. What will happen in the party? Will he exempt himself in the party as party president? This is a disgrace which would in any other country which could be a model for us had already ended with a resignation. This is simply a system by which a number of people in HDZ operate and we see that their habits do not change”, said Milanović.
He said that Prime Minister Orešković should make certain moves but added that he had no authority for that. “Two months ago, I would have said that I sympathize with him, but now I can only shrug and say that this thing simply does not work”, he said and added that it did not matter what will the Commission for Conflict of Interest Prevention decide. “This is a dirty gray area”, said Milanović.
