The opposition on Friday demanded the resignation of the national COVID-19 response team, notably Vili Beros, Krunoslav Capak, and Alemka Markotic, due to the vaccination of members of the political and social elites out of turn and the general situation in healthcare.

Mirela Ahmetovic of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) condemned out-of-turn vaccination, including that of Markotic’s mother. Markotic is the director of Zagreb’s Infectious Diseases Hospital.

Ahmetovic said that Markotic “put her professional and scientific weight in the political service of Prime Minister Plenkovic “and that she was not “surprised that people protected by the government are actually doing what they are advising against.”

Stjepo Bartulica of the right-wing DP party said Covid vaccination made it evident that Croatian institutions were not free but served the political elites to protect their own interests.

He said citizens’ equality before the law was only an illusion, calling for those responsible for the situation in public healthcare to be held to account.

Nikola Grmoja of the conservative populist Most party said the criteria should be equal for all, warning this was not only a problem with vaccine rollout, but with Croatian healthcare in general.

Marko Milanovic-Litre (right-wing Croatian Sovereignists) brought up recent examples of  Zagreb University rector Damir Boras and Croatian Chamber of Commerce president Luka Burilovic, who both received COVID vaccines recently, saying they had used political and social ties to be vaccinated out of turn.

“Everything we have seen in the past few days is against medical ethics. There should be accountability for that. The Markotic case is the last straw and that’s why we demand the resignation of (Health Minister) Beroc, Markotic, and the entire response team due to the chaos in Croatian healthcare,” he said.

Dalija Oreskovic of the Centre party said healthcare was among the most corrupt segments of society and that the government’s calling on MPs to be vaccinated was a model whereby the ruling HDZ party was corrupting the system.

She said the political elite had deprived far more vulnerable groups of being inoculated, calling this “a demonstration of power” also from the response team. She said Markotic and Capak, the director of the Croatian Institute of Public Health, were the most responsible for this, and should resign.

Tomislav Tomaaevic of the green-left bloc said this bloc was irritated by the fact that there were privileged people like Boras and Burilovic. “Out-of-turn vaccination is a moral rock bottom and this situation, where we practically have two Croatias finally has to stop,” he said, adding that this endangered the lives of people who were not vaccinated on time.