Bridge Party leader Bozo Petrov on Monday said the trade of barbs between the President and Prime Minister over the Janaf graft was causing apathy among citizens who were worried about how to make ends meet and were disgusted with politics due to everything that had occurred over the past 20 years.

That (the exchange of barbs) is essential only to President Zoran Milanovic, who obviously “stumbled on the measures,” justifying himself by saying that “he was looking around for something to eat,” and to Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic who responds to every question by saying that he doesn’t know anything and so the question is what he knows then, said Petrov.

The people are not interested in that because they have become apathetic, he told the Croatian Radio broadcaster.

Bridge, he said, will persist in combatting corruption.

“That is why we initiated the motion to establish an inquiry commission in the parliament, to find out in fact who knew what (in the Janaf scandal). Who is allowed to know and how much politics is allowed to or not allowed to influence independent bodies. We believe that it should not have any influence on institutions like the State Prosecutor’s office. That is the fight against corruption and not what they are doing now,” underscored Petrov.

Petrov claimed that as long as HDZ and SDP are in power there will not be any fight against corruption.

Senior office-holders needn’t know about ongoing investigations

Asked whether in his previous capacity as deputy prime minister and later deputy parliament speaker he had been informed of any investigations underway then, Petrov said that he had not known and he thinks that officials in those positions need not know and that anyone coming into a senior position in the state should have to undergo a security check.

We need to be sure that people who are being given such responsibility and duties, will act responsibly in those positions and towards state money, Petrov believes.

Milanovic’s statements are ludicrous

The president’s statements about investigative institutions and that he is going to call Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic for talks, is ludicrous. Petrov believes that he is only harming himself and added that he does not believe that Plenkovic didn’t know absolutely anything. “In the scandals over the past four years a large number of officials have been replaced and the prime minister could not have appointed a state secretary until he saw who was on the list for investigative custody,” claimed Petrov.

He said that neither he nor any member of the Bridge party had been to the “illegal club” owned by former Janaf CEO Dragan Kovacevic.

Petrov announced that the motion for an inquiry commission into the influence of politics on the work of independent institutions would soon be submitted as agreed to by opposition parties and that he expected the HDZ and all other parties in government to uphold the motion.