Three opposition groups in the Croatian parliament - the Green-Left Bloc, Centre-GLAS and Social Democrats - have condemned the arrest of a 72-year-old man over alleged threats to the prime minister via Facebook, saying that it is not the prime minister but the citizens who are the victims.

“It is not you or your party colleagues who are the victims, but those who receive real threats such as journalists, or those who have been left without work and live with their accounts blocked, or those who because of corruption and clientelism cannot find a job without a party membership card, or those who have left the country because of the lack of prospects for the future, or those who can express their frustration only by criticising you and the government,” MP Ivana Kekin (Green-Left Bloc) said in Parliament on Tuesday.

She said that the police make “express arrests” only when “the prime minister feels threatened, when he is criticised, which is then described as discrimination, a threat, dehumanisation and hate speech.”

Dalija Oreskovic (Centre-GLAS group) said that the arrest of a 72-year-old man from Zadar, who wrote on Facebook that Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic should be welcomed with rotten eggs the next time he visits this coastal city, was an example of abuse of power and intimidation of the public.

Common sense dictates that during the arrest the police were aware that that was not a serious threat, Orešković said, adding that the arrest was illegal and that people did not trust the prime minister or the minister of the interior.

“In this country governed by the HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union), citizens feel humiliated and betrayed, but will not be silenced,” she stressed.

Social Democrat Romana Nikolic said that this case shows that “we are a miserable democracy where the police bring in a 72-year-old pensioner for criticising the political elite.”

Instead of dealing with corruption within its own ranks, the ruling party is spying on social networks, Nikolic said.

The HDZ’s Branko Bacic rejected their statements as untruths, saying their purpose was to move the focus away from important issues.

He criticised the revocation of the scheme for stay-at-home parents in Zagreb and said that Mayor Tomislav Tomasevic, who leads the Mozemo! party which is a member of the Green-Left Bloc, was in a conflict of interest situation because of personnel appointments.