Photo: Edvard Susak/Photo Tanjug/Photo HinaFour Croatian ministers from the Government of Andrej Plenković are on the indictment for misusing money from European funds. From 2016 to today, as many as 17 ministers have been dismissed due to corruption or suspected corruption. While similar and more serious forms of crime among the highest state officials in Serbia remain only a topic for some media, the institutions in Croatia are really doing their job.
On Wednesday, the Croatian Office for the Suppression of Corruption and Organized Crime (USKOK) officially filed an indictment against former ministers in the government of current Prime Minister Andrej Plenković. They are former Minister of Construction Darko Horvat, Deputy Prime Minister of the Serbian SDSS party Boris Milošević, Tomislav Tolušić and Josip Aladrović.
As announced by USKOK, they are suspected in "two branches of the investigation" for illegality with the awarding of incentives or subsidies in the field of economy.
Independent institutions
Early in the morning in mid-February, the current Minister of Construction, Darko Horvat, was arrested after the police searched his house on the order of USKOK. He is accused of misusing money from European funds while he was the head of the Ministry of Agriculture. Boris Milošević was also arrested on that occasion.
The Prime Minister of Croatia, who is not the first time former and current ministers have been accused of abuses, briefly commented that he was informed about the confirmation of the indictment, so now the opposition will "jump on it".
"This is now a matter for the State Prosecutor's Office, we will see what happens next." "This is not a burden for the government, none of them are in the government," Plenković said. Nevertheless, he assessed that the indictment is proof that institutions work with equal standards for everyone and that USKOK and DORH are 100% independent.
Systemic corruption in HDZ
The head of the Croatian opposition SDP, Peđa Grbin, said that something like this had never happened in Croatian politics. "This is an absolute precedent. Four ministers in one day were accused of joint venture. And they are not the only ones".
The opposition reminds that as many as 17 ministers were dismissed during the mandate of Andrej Plenković, either because of suspicion or because of corruption itself, and they say that "the fish always stinks from the head".
Corruption scandals do not stop shaking the HDZ. After the scandal in INA, which many in Croatia believe could not have happened without the HDZ's knowledge, another high-ranking official of theirs, until recently the former HDZ head of Seget Donji Vinko Zulin, was deprived of his freedom.
After journalists such as Vlado Matianić reported for years that Zulin spent public money in pubs and restaurants, he is now officially accused of damaging the municipality with 2530 inhabitants with a total of HRK 425 for "private lunches and dinners" ". In addition, he gave his thirty-year-old son Marin Zulim a concession for a maritime asset "for an activity completely unrelated to the legal definition of a concession."
On Tuesday, the HDZ announced that they have "zero tolerance" for corruption, yet on the eve of the session of the party's Presidency, they said that they cannot control "any mayor and chief" as a party, because they are their own bosses as people who were directly elected direct elections.
While similar and more serious forms of crime among the highest state officials in Serbia remain only a topic for some media, the institutions in Croatia are really doing their job.
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