Antun Kapraljevic of the Croatian People's Party (HNS) asked PM Sanader during question time whether he would replace Minister Zuzul as there were three reasons to do that.
The HNS representative pointed the finger at Zuzul over tax evasion, the Bechtel scandal, in which the government intended to award Bechtel a contract to build a highway section without inviting bids, which Kapraljevic said was what Zuzul advocated, and the latest scandal about the 'Imotstroj' company, where he said Zuzul found himself in a typical situation of conflict of interest by urging the government to write off a part of the ailing Imotstroj company's debt. This reportedly happened after the company was taken over by a private company whose owners were acquaintances of the Zuzul family and concluded previously a business agreement with Zuzul's wife.
"All the three reasons are untruths, none of them is correct," Sanader said adding that he now expected of Zuzul to react to Kapraljevic's slanders.
The HNS deputy responded that what Sanader was saying had nothing in common with the truth, and presented the PM with a handful of documents which he said would help the government see where Zuzul's conflict of interest lay.
Minister Zuzul later told reporters that he resolutely rejected accusations about him being in conflict of interest.
He accused Kapraljevic of hypocrisy because he had failed to point to cases of conflict of interest at the time he was chairman of the parliamentary commission on conflict of Interest.
"If Kapraljevic proves that his claims are true, I should face the consequences as every other citizen," Zuzul told reporters after question time. He added that in a law-based state, persons making claims are responsible for what they were saying.