President Zoran Milanovic has said that Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic is dividing Croats with his "semi-racist" remarks. He was referring to an audio recording in which Plenkovic can be heard making insulting remarks about members of the Domovinski pokret and Most parties and criticising the media.

When Milanovic commented on Monday on the recording, which was made at a closed meeting of HDZ members and leaked to the political weekly Nacional, which published it, he described it as party sabotage.

“The recording was made by someone who wants to annoy Plenkovic, and this person, as soon as Plenkovic sees himself isolated, will be the first to use the recording as proof that he has driven away all (potential coalition partners). (I am talking about) the kind of completely irrational behaviour that makes a person refuse to accept that even a single problem could be caused by his behaviour,” Milanovic said, citing as an example the “imposition” of Ivan Turudic as State Attorney-General.

Uncharacteristic election campaign

“You promote a criminal who was caught committing a misdemeanour to the position of State Attorney-General and label those who find it problematic as an axis of conspiracy against you,” Milanovic said in reference to Plenkovic, adding that Plenkovic was bothered by the media, which was not corrupt and not financed by the government.

He also said that he personally does not say anything in meetings behind closed doors that he would not say in front of the media.

Regarding the election campaign, which ends on Monday, Milanovic said it was atypical because the Constitutional Court “carried out a coup by threatening the SDP party and its partners to behave contrary to all laws of logic and the Croatian Constitution”

“So the election campaign is not normal. I am a candidate, but I pretend that I am not, and I am. In a way, this makes things more difficult, but I believe that Croats will ultimately choose the right thing, and that means anything but the HDZ,” said Milanovic.