Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic made a statement to the media following the presentation of the draft state budget in parliament.

He said that the debate had been fine, although many MPs had focussed on the arrest of Beros. “The budget is good, the economic situation has never been so good,” said Plenkovic.

Asked by N1 reporter Jelena Bokun if he was satisfied with DORH’s quick response in activating Lex AP, Plenkovic replied, “You are cynical.”

“The opposition is hallucinating”

He explained that there is a prevailing notion that the government has influence over State Attorney’s Office (DORH): “If that were true, then the minister would not have been arrested.”

“Everything that is now coming to light is not in accordance with the law. Who benefits from this? Think about it,” he added.

“There are two parallel processes – one by the national criminal prosecution body, which arrests the minister and now it seems to be a problem,” the prime minister said.

“This is a hallucinatory situation. The opposition is hallucinating that someone is trying to protect someone,” he added.

“The EPPO office in Zagreb is part of DORH. Yesterday, in accordance with the law on the conflict of jurisdiction between the European institution and the national law enforcement agency, USKOK and EPPO, the State Attorney-General made a decision in this case. He has made a decision. As far as I know, we are now in a phase where the European Public Prosecutor’s Office in Zagreb is supposed to hand over all the information to USKOK. USKOK will review it and probably come to the same conclusions,” said Plenkovic.

“This is most difficult for me”

“The European Public Prosecutor’s Office exists because of the political will of the parliamentary majority and the government. We are glad that it exists; we fully support it. Whether a case falls under the jurisdiction of the national authority or the EPPO is for them to decide,” explained Plenkovic.

“Read the EPPO statement from Friday. It’s about three criminal offences in three hospitals: Vinogradska, Klaiceva, and Osijek. It is clear that a robotic surgical microscope was overpriced. An undeniable loss for the state budget. Whose responsibility? That of USKOK. EPPO itself says so. They state that there is a fourth case involving the procurement of another, obviously larger and more expensive device that was to be purchased with RRF funds for the KBC Split. There was an attempt at bribery here, but it was not carried out. EPPO itself says that no damage was done. It’s not about someone evading prosecution, but about who does the prosecuting, which requires loyal co-operation,” the Prime Minister continued.

“Why do we suddenly distrust USKOK? And why? Explain that to me,” Plenkovic asked.

He said he had instructed Beros’ deputy, Irena Hrstic, to initiate a review of all procurements that took place outside the procurement plan. “As a government, we want to see what happened there. We will conduct a review because such incidents are unacceptable.”

“This situation is the most difficult for us – the most difficult for me, both in human, political and managerial terms – something that you can’t even imagine happening behind your back. Unfortunately, it happened. We acted immediately when we realised what had happened. Now we will take steps to deal with the past, but also the future, and introduce stricter control mechanisms,” said Plenkovic.

“We are witnessing a circus that is a parody of democracy”

He also commented on the date of the presidential election recalling how President Zoran Milanovic had scheduled the parliamentary election for Wednesday and what happened next.

“We are witnessing a circus that is a parody of democracy, a theatre at its peak. Now we have some who are watching the Domovinski Pokret party with tears in their eyes to see if a spark will ignite… And here we are, forming the third government,” said Plenkovic.

He reiterated how Milanovic “detained” Lieutenant General Tihomir Kundid at Pantovcak.

“In such a circus, we are heading towards the presidential election,” Plenkovic concluded.