The leader of the Domovinski pokret (DP) parliamentary group, Igor Peternel, on Thursday rejected speculation about an internal party dispute over the latest developments in the case of DP MP Stephen Bartulica and spoke out against the appointment of the leader of the Independent Democratic Serbian Party (SDSS), Milorad Pupovac, as chairman of the Committee on Human and National Minority Rights. He described this as problematic and illogical.

“Associating Stephen Bartulica with any kind of crime is bizarre… he has won the trust of voters to represent us in the European Parliament and I think we should slowly move on from this affair as he has ended his active political engagement in Croatia for five years and is supposed to serve as a member of the European Parliament,” Peternel said in a comment on Bartulica’s arrival on election day at his party’s election headquarters in a Ferrari driven by a person with a criminal past.

Peternel rejected claims that this had caused a rift in the DP party.

“The situation was unpleasant for us, but I hope that we now finally have time to do what we were all elected to do, which is to enable the progress of Croatia and its citizens,” Peternel said.

The future of the DP’s cooperation with the HDZ will be decided and Penava and Radic will talk about it

Asked whether Bartulica had apologised in an interview with Nova TV on Wednesday evening, as DP leader Ivan Penava had demanded, Peternel said that Bartulica was a grown man, a politician with many years of diplomatic experience and knew best whether he should apologise or not.

Commenting on media reports that Penava had single-handedly agreed to the appointment of Independent Democratic Serbian Party (SDSS) leader Milorad Pupovac as chairman of the Committee on Human and National Minority Rights without consulting the party’s bodies, Peternel said that the matter “needs to be discussed further” and that he had not been informed that a final solution had been agreed.

“The vote will take place next week and we will definitely not be in favour. As for the future of our cooperation with the HDZ, it will be decided and (DP leader Ivan) Penava and Mario Radic will give their opinion,” Peternel said.

When asked whether this means that the appointment of Pupovac could jeopardise the cooperation between the coalition partners HDZ and DP parties, Peternel said that this was not the case. However, he considers it extremely problematic and illogical that Pupovac was elected chairman of the committee by the majority quota, while his party colleague Dragana Jeckov was elected his deputy by the opposition quota.

“When such a decision is made, we know that… one of the parties does not agree with it, while the other insists and is even willing to let them vote together with the SDP party. Well, the voters should know that too,” he concluded.