"Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic on Tuesday rejected claims that he was exerting influence on the Office of the State Attorney General (DORH), explaining that he phoned Attorney General Zlata Hrvoj-Sipek 'only to ask why she was not reacting to President Zoran Milanovic's impermissible pressure' on DORH," state agency Hina informed the public on Tuesday.

“Have you ever heard of a president calling for a minister’s or MP’s arrest,” Plenkovic asked reporters at a press conference following a meeting of the ruling coalition.

He once again referred to President Milanovic as “Moscow’s man at Pantovcak (presidential palace),” saying that over the past few months citizens had witnessed Milanovic’s pressuring DORH in the case of MP Hrvoje Zekanovic while now he was making accusations against Defence Minister Mario Banozic.

“That is impermissible pressure on prosecutorial authorities, on DORH, which did not react in either case and that is why I phoned Zlata Hrvoj-Sipek“, Plenkovic said.

He recalled that in 2020 DORH immediately reacted to his statement that DORH should also look into cases concerning parties other than his HDZ.

Plenkovic added that he completely respected the independence of state institutions, DORH and the police and did not think that DORH was biased but that there could be no double standards.

Milanovic’s statement that his phoning DORH is sufficient reason for an ouster is just a fairy tale, Plenkovic said.

Asked to comment on the president’s statement on abolishing the Constitutional Court, Plenkovic just said: “That’s brilliant!”

Commenting on the government’s possible intervention to buffer the high inflation, Plenkovic said that the government would use all available tools but that freezing prices was the last option.

No consensus on new abortion bill in ruling coalition

Commenting on the case of Mirela Cavajda, a woman six months into her pregnancy who who could not have her pregnancy terminated in Croatia despite the child’s serious malformations, Plenkovic said the case was politically instrumentalised.

Regarding a new abortion bill, Plenkovic said that the ruling coalition had not discussed it yet and that he believed that there was no consensus on the matter among the coalition partners.

“This is a very complicated topic. We have a parliamentary majority with different world views,” he said in reference to the fact that some MPs from the ruling coalition last week supported the Social Democratic Party’s abortion bill.

He also commented on the strike of non-emergency ambulance drives, saying that he would ask the health minister to see what can be done for drivers’ wage indexes to be the same throughout Croatia.

Plenkovic once again said that the ruling coalition was stable and firm and was dealing with serious topics, unlike the opposition.