Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic said on Monday that the release of an audio recording of Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic talking to members of his HDZ party was staged by those who cannot offer voters a programme or a vision, but resort to "parapolitical methods".

“Those who have tried to present themselves to Croatian voters in various, but always unsuccessful, ways in this election campaign lack a programme and a vision. I am not sure if they have a (prime ministerial) candidate, because some say they have one and others say they do not. They have tried everything and now they have no programme. They have tried everything and now they have no programme. They have tried everything and now, on the last day of the campaign, they are resorting to para-political methods in the form of some recordings, but that will not help them. They are losers and will remain losers,” Bozinovic told reporters during a tour of the new offices of the National Coordination Centre for Border Control in the Police Directorate.

He went on to say that the HDZ would form the government again after Wednesday’s elections and described the recording in which Plenkovic makes insulting remarks about members of the Bridge and Homeland Movement parties as a desperate attempt.

“To publish something like this one day before the elections is, in my opinion, another attempt to denigrate Croatian voters,” he said.

In the recording in question, which was published on Monday by the weekly Nacional, Plenkovic accuses some media of wanting to topple the HDZ and speaks disparagingly about members of other parties. Bozinovic replied that the government and its ministers were openly criticised in Croatia, which is in line with the highest democratic standards.

“So I do not see this as a problem and certainly no cause for concern,” he said.