Mayor of Croatia's second city of Split, Ivica Puljak, and his first deputy, Bojan Ivosevic, on Thursday confirmed that they were stepping down, adding that they nevertheless intended to run in a snap local election, state agency Hina said.

“This is not a resignation that came as a result of extortion. It is virtually impossible (by Croatian law) to remove a mayor. I could have remained mayor until the end of the year, the budget would not get passed, and then there would be a new election for the city council, which is something we seem to have become used to in Croatian politics,” Puljak told a news conference.

Puljak, a successful physicist, won the last local election in May 2021, representing a small liberal party called Center. His deputy mayor, Bojan Ivosevic, worked at an IT company before the election, but became much better known after the election for penning an anti-Semitic rant on Facebook and also for threatening an editor of the local daily Slobodna Dalmacija.

Puljak initially defied mounting public pressure to sack Ivosevic, but on Wednesday local media reported that they would both resign, meaning that the city would have to hold snap election. On Thursday, Puljak confirmed this in a news conference.

“I am not that type of person or politician. I do not want to stoop to that sort of politics,” Puljak said and added that he wanted to give Split citizens an opportunity to choose the sort of government they wanted. “I am not afraid of my citizens. I do not want to be mayor without the support of the citizens. I am certain that we have that support now and will have it in the future,” he added.

Referring to Ivosevic, who has been indicted for threatening a reporter from the Slobodna Dalmacija daily, Puljak downplayed the incident. In February, Puljak allegedly called the editor of the city column at Slobodna Dalmacija angry about their reporting, and told her that he would “drink their blood.” This was reported to police, which then led to a formal indictment with the case pending trial.

“For difficult decisions and in difficult times like this, I always go back to the question of what is true and what isn’t. Is it true that the deputy mayor threatened a reporter’s life? No, that is not true. The truth is that his communication was inappropriate and inadequate, that is the truth. We have never justified inappropriate communication and we never will. One does not go to jail for things like that,” said Puljak.