The main message of this corruption scandal is not that the rule of law functions, but that corruption goes all the way up to the top of the government, Pusic said in a statement on the occasion of the arrest for fraud of several HFP officials in the Maestro operation this morning.
Those responsible in the HFP work under the government's political directives and supervision given that Deputy PM Damir Polancec is the chairman of the HFP management board, said Pusic.
"In this situation, apart from those under suspicion and against whom there is evidently proof, the government too must be held accountable," she said, asking the government to resign.
Slavko Linic, a Social Democratic Party (SDP) member of parliament, applauded today's joint operation of the police and the Office for the Suppression of Corruption and Organised Crime (USKOK), but said that following the arrests the ministers on the HFP management board should answer politically.
"The HFP is not managed either by assistants or a director or a secretary but by the management board, which is chaired by Deputy PM Damir Polancec and has (finance and agriculture) ministers (Ivan) Suker and (Petar) Cobankovic as members," Linic told an extraordinary news conference.
He said that no one had been held politically accountable in other scandals involving the government, such as the Brodosplit shipyard and the latest one implicating Transport Minister Bozidar Kalmeta's chauffer.
Linic said this practice was typical of Sanader's governing. He accused him of having disgraced Croatia in Europe.
Asked if the SDP was ready to answer politically if it was proved that there had been corruption in the HFP even during the previous, SDP-led government, Linic said that everyone managing departments within the HFP must be investigated and that he was ready to answer if it was proved that there had been corruption in the Fund even at the time of the SDP.
Commenting on Sanader's announcement that the HFP would be closed, Linic said closing down an institution over crime was not a good message.
One may consider structural changes, but that cannot replace political accountability, he said.