The HSLS on Wednesday strongly condemned Homeland Movement MP Ivan Penava's statement that Monday's shooting of a policeman outside the government was an act of rebellion against the system, saying such a statement was unacceptable and that it bordered on terrorism.

Penava, who is also the mayor of Vukovar, told Nova TV last night that the shooter had shown rebellion and that the system which people did not trust was to blame. “The system hasn’t dealt with rapists, those who slaughtered. People keep weapons because they don’t trust the system, because the system hasn’t proved that they can trust it.”

The ruling coalition’s HSLS party said in a press release that Penava’s statement was “a scandalous political exploitation of that tragedy” and that especially worrying and harmful was Penava’s equation of the shooting with rebellion.

The HSLS condemns statements which support ideas that undermine the public order, notably from an MP, the press release said.

Penava’s statements “border on terrorism” and are a warning that liberal democracy must be reaffirmed every day as an institutional guarantee of freedom and security, the party said.