MP Zeljko Reiner of the ruling centre-right Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) told the parliamentary opposition on Wednesday afternoon that it will not succeed in a third attempt for the parliament to give a vote of no confidence in Health Minister Vili Beros.

“Some things in the parliament are becoming a bit bizarre, comical. This is the third time in two years that the opposition has raised the issue of a vote of no confidence in Beros, knowing well that it won’t succeed,” said Reiner at the start of the debate on the no-confidence motion.

This motion too is so superficial, weakly argued, like the previous two, and is pointless, he said, wondering why such motions are being made at all.

The opposition once again reiterated Beros’ faults, from the fact that he failed to get consent for his health care reform, via the fact that he was unable to ensure the implementation of the law that guarantees the right to safe abortion, to the fact that during his term in office an unprecedented event occurred when medical supplies to hospitals were suspended.

These are indicators of why Beros has to leave, the leader of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) Pedja Grbin said.

“Is there any sense in debating confidence in Beros or should we agree to the date of a snap election and restore the confidence of citizens,” Nino Raspudic (Most party) asked HDZ lawmakers, adding that he noticed they had all turned up in the parliament today.

“We are here for the third time because healthcare is one of the fundamental human rights and because people are literally feeling the HDZ’s rule on their skin. You have taken away people’s right to healthcare,” Katarina Peovic of the left-wing Workers’ Front told Reiner.

Marijan Pavlicek of the right-wing Croatian Sovereignists noted that Croatia’s healthcare system is a “gravely ill patient” and right now it is creating millions in losses and that has been going on for years.

There are huge debts to drug wholesalers and energy suppliers, and unfortunately, there has not been any healthcare reform, he said.

The motion for a no-confidence vote was submitted by the Green-Left Bloc, claiming that under his leadership, the already neglected healthcare began to rapidly deteriorate.

The bloc argued that Beros has to go because of the Mirela Cavajda case and her attempts to get an abortion in the 22nd week of pregnancy.

It also called him out for the Medikol case, the USKOK anti-corruption investigation related to the business with the Cuspis company, the lack of reforms, debts in healthcare, and suspicious transplants at KBC Zagreb.

The government rejected all the opposition’s objections to Beros’ work, evaluating them as unfounded and groundless, and underlined that “the health system is resilient and efficient.”

Among Beros’ merits, the government mentioned the fight against the COVID pandemic, reform measures, as well as results that can be measured by world examples.