Davor Filipovic, who was sacked from the post of Croatia's economy minister after his special advisor's involvement in influence peddling, said on Wednesday that he had known nothing about Jurica Lovrincevic's murky deals with local media, but that he assumed his political responsibility.

Filipovic’s dismissal came on Tuesday after the Nacional weekly ran an article saying that his special adviser Lovrincevic offered to the Zagreb-based local television network Mreza TV to lease advertising space to a number of state companies and institutions, in return asking for half of the agreed amount to be paid to him. The weekly released an audio recording of a conversation between Lovrincevic and a Mreza TV reporter.

“I was not aware of those developments, but I take over the political responsibility for this case,” Filipovic told a news conference.

He said that after the ministerial term, he would resume his career of a professor at the Faculty of Economy at the University of Zagreb and that he would not take any financial benefits to which he is entitled as a former minister in the next 12 months.

Filipovic says that he does not want to be a burden to the Andrej Plenkovic cabinet, to the HDZ party or the the homeland adding that it was an honour to him to serve to the country.

Filipovic finds it also illogical that Lovrincevic, whom he described as one of the wealthiest people in Croatia, was implicated in this scheme of syphoning money through the lease of advertisement space. The former minister underscored that such things should not have happened and that he assumes political responsibility for such developments.

As for media reports on that scandal and on Lovrincevic’s ploy in which he reportedly provided the Opposition Bridge party with pieces of information from the economy ministry, Filipovic said that the relevant institutions should now find out whether those reports were true.

Filipovic said that Lovrincevic himself would address media.

Filipovic sad that  during his term as a minister, he had not been engaged in any operations concerning media campaigns about his ministerial performance.

As for his dismissal immediately after the breaking news about Lovrincevic’s implication in the scheme, Filipovic said that Prime Minister Plenkovic chooses his team and makes decision on members of his cabinet.

He said that PM and he had held talks in a correct manner yesterday and that their relationship remains fair.