ZAGREB, Oct 3, 2020 – The deputy speaker of the Croatian parliament and leader of the right-wing Homeland Movement, Miroslav Skoro, said on Saturday that the manner of selecting the Attorney-General should be changed.
Skoro was speaking to reporters after a grape harvest in Mitrovac, about 200 kilometres east of Zagreb.
“We have already raised the problem of such an influential and powerful person being handpicked by a political group. There are a lot of political games played here, under-the-table dealings, and we are all hostages to this system,” Skoro said.
“The way in which the system works, the way in which these people are selected, notably the Attorney-General, should be changed. That is crucial. The Attorney-General must be an independent, well-paid professional who will come to grips with the cancer of crime and corruption in this society,” the Homeland Movement leader said.
Commenting on media reports that Dragan Kovacevic, the former CEO of state-owned oil pipeline operator JANAF, who has been arrested on suspicion of corruption, had hidden money in the home of the husband of a deputy state attorney, Skoro said: “The saddest thing is that people who should have known about this pretend that they did not know. If they indeed did not know, then we are all in big trouble.”
Asked if the Homeland Movement supported the demand for abolishing the mandatory membership fee for the Croatian Chamber of Commerce and the Croatian Chamber of Trades and Crafts, he said: “Yes, wholeheartedly!”
