Croatian President Zoran Milanovic said on Thursday in a comment on the heated debates on the Janaf scandal, that he was struggling for the truth and denied claims that he was shifting the focus from the subject matter of the investigation concerned.

During his interview with the RTL commercial broadcaster, Milanovic underscored that it was him who had been the first to raise the problem of investigation leaks in this case.

He said that he himself did not see any problem in the fact that he was one of the people who had visited the club of former Janaf director Dragan Kovacevic, currently held in custody on charges of bribe taking and abuse of influence.

“I am not on a campaign. My term has just started. This is a struggle for the truth,” Milanovic said in a comment on the heated debates between him and his fierce critics, including a political analysts Zarko Puhovski.

During the interview the president labelled Puhovski as the RTL’s own pundit who testified against Croatian students during the Yugoslav Communist rule in 1972 and who later “did even something worse”.

“He went to the Hague to testify (before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY) in the way that could have been disastrous for Croatia,” Milanovic said accusing Puhovski that he went to the Hague at his own initiative.

Milanovic also insists that Puhovski enjoyes “a mystical status” in media while he is actually “an unworthy and contaminated” man who is acting as an pundit who gives opinion and advice on all questions.

“It is my duty to say who he is,” Milanovic said refusing the anchorman’s interpretation that his criticism of Puhovski was actually an attempt of lustration.

The president added that ethics and somebody’s biography “are everything in the politics.”

Milanovic also refuted accusations made against him by the Index portal and by the Croatian Journalists’ Society (HND) that he was trying to edit media contents. As for the HND, the president said that the accusations had not been levelled by all members but by “one or two persons” alluding to some of the HND officials

Milanovic dismissed claims that there was “a non-aggression pact” between him and the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) or him and his former party, the Social Dmocratic Party (SDP).

“This is a struggle for the truth. We must know some arguments.”

He also insisted that when it came to the investigation into the case implicating Kovacevic and some other suspects, the interior minister and the chief police director should have informed the premier about the developments.

The president reiterated his criticism of how the preliminary probe and investigation had been conducted in that case.

As for his visit to the club of Kovacevic during the lockdown this spring, Milanovic again said that in his capacity as the president of the republic had had to continue doing his job rather than staying at home.

Some other people also came to the club and those are neither prostitutes not criminals as called by (politician) Dalia Oreskovic whose public discourse has not elicited any response from feminist associations, he said, accusing them of a conspiracy of silence.