Leaders of parties of the ruling coalition held a meeting on Friday over Economy Minister Martina Dalic's leaked e-mails related to the law designed to help the indebted food and retail group Agrokor. Junior partners in the coalition agreed to support the Prime Minister but also meet again next week to discuss Dalic's role in the process.

The meeting came after several junior partners in the coalition had demanded consultations with leader of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic on Thursday.

After the meeting, which lasted until early afternoon on Friday, Plenkovic’s coalition partners said they still supported him and his government, but announced a new round of talks, expected to decide whether Dalic would be sacked.

“We cleared the air, and we made a few conclusions. Firstly, we will continue next week with talks about the process of reaching the debt settlement, and with the discussion on problems we started to discuss today. We will talk again about where we are today in what is an important process for the country, and also when and where has any contamination in the process occurred. As for the government, members of the ruling coalition still support the government,” leader of the Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS), Milorad Pupovac, told reporters after the meeting.

Pupovac is one of three MPs elected to represent the ethnic Serb minority in Parliament, and is aligned with the ruling HDZ-led coalition, which also includes the liberal Croatian People’s Party (HNS), the Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS), and other MPs representing ethnic minorities.

Junior partners in the ruling coalition emphasised that although the matter of Dalic’s e-mails should be discussed further, the process of getting a debt agreement with Agrokor’s creditor’s should not be put in jeopardy.

The controversial law, passed in April last year, allowed the government to appoint emergency managers in the privately-owned indebted food and retail group Agrokor, the biggest private company in Croatia which at the time employed some 60,000 people across the region.

The current emergency manager of Agrokor, Fabris Perusko, and his deputy, Irena Weber, will be invited to attend the meeting on Tuesday, to report on the debt settlement process.

“The meeting will continue on Tuesday, we will also invite Fabris and Weber to attend. We extend our support to Plenkovic as Prime Minister. We expect that the settlement would be made by July 10. We also expect relevant institutions to investigate if any individuals had taken advantage of this situation,” leader of HSLS, Darinko Kosor, said after the meeting.

The settlement, which must be negotiated by the state-appointed crisis management and the company’s creditors by July 10, will include a debt-for-equity deal, and is considered essential for the orderly restructuring of the indebted company, and the economy at large.

“We concluded that next week we will be presented with information about how the debt settlement process at Agrokor is going, and I think the top priority now is to save tens of thousands of jobs related to the company. We wish to show responsibility towards that process. As for political responsibility, it’s something that will be discussed over the next few days, and also after July 10,” leader of the Croatian people’s Party (HNS), Ivan Vrdoljak, said.

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