Zuzul's involvement in the so-called Imotstroj scandal has damaged his reputation and credibility so much that, in view of the fact that he is supposed to represent Croatia in negotiations with the European Union on full membership, he should resign, HNS leader Vesna Pusic said at a joint press conference with SDP and HSS leaders Ivica Racan and Zlatko Tomcic.
The ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and Prime Minister Ivo Sanader labour under the misapprehension that scandals, such as the one in which Zuzul is involved, will not prompt analysis by the European Commission of the state of democracy in Croatia, Tomcic said.
The opposition leaders criticised the Prime Minister for attempting to shift the attention from Zuzul to members of the opposition in order to exempt his minister from responsibility.
Racan said that resolution of the Zuzul case could not be avoided by pointing to scandals from the past, and that the opposition must not give in to the attempts by the government to silence its criticism.
Racan did not give a straight answer to the question why the previous government, which was led by him as prime minister, had not observed the same principles he was now advocating and why it had not investigated media stories of some of his ministers being in conflict of interest.
Racan said that his government had highlighted the issue of conflict of interest at the end of its term, and expressed regret that the law on conflict of interest had not been adopted before.
The opposition leaders were agreed that the Zuzul case should be investigated and said they hoped to see legal institutions at work over the next 30 days, during which time the Parliament must discuss their initiative. They complained that the parliamentary Commission on Conflict of Interest was not functioning and criticised the ruling party for it.
The three party leaders said that Croatia should not have any problems in Brussels as a result of the scandal if the country showed itself as a strong democratic state governed by rule of law. In this context Pusic pointed out that their initiative for a no-confidence vote in Zuzul was an attempt to prevent any damage being done to Croatia.