The Bridge party parliamentarian, Nikola Grmoja, claimed on Tuesday that the national COVID crisis response team has lost trust because of the disputes that have emerged in the government's scientific advisory council and that citizens no longer believe in the measures being introduced.

“The crisis response team has lost its trust and a dispute has erupted in the government’s scientific council itself. How then can people have confidence in the decisions it adopts when they are squabbling between themselves and do not want to admit that some things were done poorly. We are not asking for saints or faultless people. There isn’t a country that hasn’t made mistakes and this is an extraordinary situation where errors are inevitable, however if you make a mistake you say so. People would then have much more faith,” Grmoja told the press in the parliament commenting on the government’s ‘thanking’ five members of the advisory council for their help after they signed an appeal to the government criticising it for its actions.

“Since the start, I have advocated commonsensical approach to this crisis and that the council includes more experts from various fields, not only epidemiologists, and now we have the situation that only one epidemiologist has remained in the council and that is one that was chosen along party lines – Krunoslav Capak – and I think that is not good,” added Grmoja.

“I think the government has to make political decisions, and this entire time it has been doing so even though its has been hiding behind the experts but it also needs to listen to as many people as possible. If there are more people involved then the government can make sounder decisions,” Grmoja believes.

Skoro: Govt dismisses anyone with a dissenting opinion

The head of the Homeland Movement Miroslav Skoro said that the COVID crisis response team has been politicised and the message to the experts in the scientific council after their appeal, is that there is no sense in cooperation and the government has excluded all their opinions.

“I believe that is just the tip of the iceberg. They will dismiss anyone who has a dissenting opinion. That is Andrej Plenkovic and his government’s modus operandi. When we said that the COVID crisis response team was politicised and that it was a political body, no one believed us then. Now you can be convinced yourselves that only those who are in line with what Plenkovic says mean anything, because he probably knows more about everything including how to manage the coronacrisis and the virus itself, so that all those epidemiologists can be removed. I think that it terrible,” Skoro told reporters in the parliament.

The message is that if you do not think like I do, you will be excluded and that goes for all levels. That isn’t anything new and the people are aware of that but it is interesting that even though they know and can see this they still vote for them, said Skoro.

Glas: PM and govt absolutely incapable and unwilling to listen to anyone in this crisis

The Glas party commented saying that ousting scientists from the government’s scientific advisory council was a move in which Prime Minister Plenkovic showed that he is absolutely incapable and unwilling to listen to anyone else in this crisis.