Economy Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Martina Dalic commented on Friday the recent stir caused by the release of her private e-mails published by the website Index.hr earlier this week which showed she had consulted various brokerage firms and lawyers in drafting the controversial Lex Agrokor bill.
Asked whether she has lost the trust of junior coalition partners and whether she had plans to resign, Dalic said no.
“I will not resign. Why do you think I have lost the trust of coalition partners? The meetings are held regularly, and they are used to discuss all sorts of topics. The topic that seems to have occupied the media these days only confirms what we have said before – that I am the main author of the (Lex Agrokor) law, that I have talked to experts who might help,” Dalic said.
She added that the fact that the state attorney office announced it would look into the leaked e-mails did not bother her.
“If any official institution has anything to examine, I have no problem with it. I worked on finding a solution to the biggest crisis that Croatia faced since the country’s independence. I had very little time, there was no time for estimates, public discussions, debates… Within the time-frame defined by what was going on, the government created a piece of legislation and sent it to Parliament to fill the (regulation) gap in the event of (Agrokor’s) systemic bankruptcy. The law we are talking about here was also confirmed by the Constitutional Court,” Dalic added.
VEZANE VIJESTI
She was also asked about her relationship with lawyer Boris Savoric, of the Savoric & Partners law firm, who appeared in the leaked e-mails, which appeared to contrast with her earlier statement in February when she was asked directly by the Parliament’s Agrokor committee about their relationship and denied having anything to do with him.
“I have nothing to do with Savoric. I met him in the context of what I was saying (at the Parliament committee), that independent experts should be consulted in order to analyse the situation and find a solution (for Agrokor),” Dalic told reporters, after attending a meeting of the Croatian Banking Association (HUB) in Zagreb.
Pressed on, Dalic admitted that she did exchange e-mails with Savoric, but that doing so does not mean having any sort of relationship with him.
“I have daily e-mail correspondence with lots of people… I exchange thousands of e-mails, and I use four e-mail addresses for that,” Dalic said.
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