"This is a mere thinly-veiled flyer designed for diverting the attention from the corruption scandals of the HDZ (the ruling Croatian Democratic Union)," SDP parliamentarian Nenad Stazic told a news conference in Zagreb on Saturday.
He also said that it was untrue that a senior official from his party was a source who gave information about the alleged SDP-Actavis relations to the article's author, Anita Malenica.
Stazic said that the main reason for publishing such an article were the announcements by the Office of State Prosecutor that it would next week press charges against some managers from the Brodosplit shipyard on suspicion that they were involved in the laundering of six million dollars.
This is a scandal that cannot be swept under the carpet just as the scandals surrounding the companies Kamen Ingrad or the Pliva pharmaceutical firm, Stazic said adding that while the SDP chief, Ivica Racan, was the Prime Minister, Pliva was a respectable company compared to today's situation when it is is, he said, an object of trade.
Citing an unnamed senior official of the SDP, the Vecernji List reported that after Actavis withdrew from the race for Pliva, the SDP held a secret meeting at which party officials expressed concern for a loss of kickbacks over the failed transactions.