After meeting with other party leaders on Monday evening to discuss the new developments and despite new revelations, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said the HDZ would continue to support Ivan Turudic’s nomination, the Croatian public broadcaster HRT reported on Monday.

“Everyone who attended this meeting, the leadership of the party, ministers, and MPs, is united in our continued support for the nomination of Mr. Turudic for attorney general,” Plenkovic told reporters at a press conference after the meeting.

The already controversial nomination of judge Ivan Turudic for attorney general now faces even more scrutiny after Jutarnji list published a cache of text messages between the judge and former prominent HDZ politician Josipa Pleslic (ex-Rimac), who faces multiple corruption charges. The texts revealed the two had a closer relationship than Turudic admits.

“The judge was restrictive in his expression”

The texts, leaked to the daily Jutarnji list, are part of the corruption case against Josipa Pleslic (ex-Rimac) and were extracted from her mobile phone by investigators. They show the two communicated quite casually and often exchanged information and advice, although they do not appear to implicate Turudic in any crimes.

As for the claims that Turudic had lied during his interview before the relevant parliamentary committee about his connections with Josipa Pleslic (ex-Rimac), Plenkovic said “I would not say that he lied. He might have been restrictive in his expression.”

Plenkovic also said that he would turn down the request of President Zoran Milanovic for convening a session of the National Security Council.

“Milanovic has no legal powers in the procedure of the selection of State Attorney-General… The latest developments are an attempt of political blows dealt by political opponents to the government in a bid to prevent the appointment of the nominee we have proposed,” he said.

Plenkovic said an intensive campaign was under way by a score of actors who oppose Turudic’s appointment, including President Milanovic, the opposition parties and a score of “other actors.”

The campaign “evidently shows there are many people who wouldn’t like to see (Turudic), as a candidate outside the system of the State Attorney’s Office, at the head of this institution,” he said.

Plenkovic also said that he in his capacity as the prime minister had never seen such messages and that he was not accustomed to asking unlawfully services and agencies to be provided with messages of persons under surveillance: “Here we are seeing a serious attempt by totally anonymous people, elected by no one yet evidently extremely interested, to influence political processes.”

“The messages were leaked because of the political aim”

Choosing a state attorney general is not within the remit of anonymous people in the system, but of parliament and the government and a transparent procedure initiated by the State Attorney’s Office, Plenkovic said and added:

“These text messages were released for only one reason and the aim is political. They were released by someone within the system who wants to send a message to him that they do not want him to lead the Public Prosecutor’s Office.”

From the start, the opposition opposed the government’s proposal to appoint Turudic as the new State Prosecutor, claiming that he was the man behind the HDZ party and was linked to numerous suspects and defendants.

On Monday, the opposition centre-left SDP party MP Arsen Bauk said that the parliament should not discuss the appointment of Turudic on Wednesday but the dissolution and holding of the parliamentary elections, which are planned for this year anyway.

Parliamentary representative of Mozemo party Sandra Bencic threatened to bring the Turudic case before the EU Commission. In the meantime, the representatives of the Mozemo made a statement on Saint Mark’s Square and decided to stay there for the next 22 hours, inviting the citizens to join them.