Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic on Thursday commented on the former minister and incumbent member of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) presidency Gabrijela Zalac's arrest yesterday and stressed the presumption of innocence, adding that the party's presidency would decide on her status in the HDZ next week.

During a press conference after the cabinet meeting, Plenkovic said that judicial authorities in Croatia worked independently and autonomously without any influence on them and particularly not by the government which is interested in and working on suppressing corruption.

“In Croatia, we have the presumption of innocence, which means that you are innocent until proven guilty in court proceedings. Regardless of who it concerns, someone who is not a public figure or someone who perhaps is, and even a member of the HDZ, a former minister, that presumption applies to everyone,” said Plenkovic.

Given that they don’t have any insight than what has been released in the media (about the scandal dubbed Software), any further comments on that procedure would be counterproductive, he added.

“We as a party have various possibilities of decision making according to the statute. Next week the presidency will meet and we will see what to do next as far as ex-minister Zalac’s party status is concerned,” said Plenkovic.

Zalac was an expert for EU funds

Due to criticism from the opposition and President Zoran Milanovic about “whose choice it was and why someone was appointed minister,” Plenkovic underscored that before she was appointed minister, Zalac had for years proven that she was an expert in EU funds at various levels in Vukovar-Srijem County.

He noted that he met her in 2010 when he travelled around Croatia as a state secretary. “Nowhere else in Croatia had I seen anyone with so much knowledge, enthusiasm, quality and familiarity with EU funds. I think she was brilliant,” he said.

“Her entire contribution to what the government did in absorbing EU funds was certainly much broader, more concrete and greater than the framework that is being portrayed now. I don’t know what will happen in this concrete procedure, nor can I comment on that but I think that it is important to observe the entire situation,” he added.

“As far as personnel is concerned, if I were to start naming those from the Social Democratic Party whom he (President Milanovic in his capacity as prime minister) chose and ended up in court proceedings, and we saw that he himself remembered some, from ministers in his government to other officials, then this type of commentary about who selected whom can be dismissed that same second,” said Plenkovic.

He said there wasn’t anything unusual for the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) to handle this case because the government clearly said in 2017 that it wanted to be part of that mechanism.

“That is a constituent part of the USKOK (anti-corruption body). I can see that the people who are debating this have no idea about it,” said Plenkovic referring to opposition MPs.

Asked by reporters whether he thinks citizens believe him when he says that he is fighting against corruption yet a member of his party’s presidency has been arrested, he answered, “absolutely, they trust me, for that reason in fact.” He once again reiterated that the courts, DORH and police are independent bodies.

He concluded that individual cases cannot be generalised because every case has a “name and surname.”