The parliamentary Opposition leaders on Tuesday rejected accusations that they had joined forces with the media to undermine the state, which was allegedly discussed by the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) leadership on Monday evening.

Tomislav Tomašević, who leads the Green-Left bloc, said that the Opposition’s initiative to launch a commission of inquiry into the post-war reconstruction of Sisak-Moslavina County had obviously come across a negative response in the HDZ.

Tomašević said that in his comment on the meeting of HDZ’s top officials on Monday when they allegedly said that this Opposition bloc had been in collusion with the media.

It is in everyone’s interest to determine whether the (post-war) reconstruction in all of Croatia had any irregularities, particularly since this refers to about half a million people in those areas and everyone’s lives are in danger if a new earthquake were to occur, warned Tomašević. I don’t see why the HDZ thinks that initiative means an attempt to dismantle the state or HDZ, he wondered.

Miroslav Škoro of the Homeland Movement rejected any theory of collusion between the media and the opposition which was allegedly discussed at the HDZ meeting.

We (my party) spent the last ten days or so in the field and we can confirm that institutions did not react as they should have and now that you have called them out, Prime Minister Plenković is accusing you (media) of being in collusion with us and that you are doing who knows what, Škoro told the press.

“The only precise fact is that we tried to help those people, that we organised ourselves, just like you did,” Škoro told the media adding that the Homeland Movement had distributed 1,200 tonnes of humanitarian aid.

Caterers prepared between 12,000 and 13,000 meals a day, free of charge and now that a state company has taken over it is going to charge the state, he claimed.

Bridge leader Božo Petrov said that he believed that the HDZ was trying to turn the public’s attention away from certain topics. HDZ throws a bone to the public and then there is no more complaints or mention of the fact that there are no more hot meals in Glina or Petrinja anymore. That’s disastrous in my opinion.

Tomašević added that there was talk that they (opposition) were dismantling the state and that European Commission Vice President for Democracy has a very peculiar understanding of democracy and the role of the media, he said recalling that Dubravka Šuica claims that she is a sponsor of a particular television and that she will not allow criticism from that television.