Asked by the press to comment on Rop's claim that the incidents were being agreed shortly before elections in Slovenia, Sanader said he had heard a lot of nonsense since he was in politics but that this was one of the biggest. He added that Rop was making things up because he was evidently not over losing the 2004 election yet.
Sanader said that this was nonetheless a "serious matter" because "Rop admitted to wiretapping foreign citizens, even a foreign prime minister, as the then premier".
Sanader went on to say that the Croatian Foreign Ministry would send a harsh protest note to Slovenia today demanding that the entire matter be investigated to see who had been wiretapped. He added that if he had indeed been wiretapped, appropriate steps would be taken.
Rop said on Sunday that in 2004 Slovenia's intelligence wiretapped Sanader's telephone conversations with incumbent Slovene PM Jansa, at the time the leader of Slovenia's opposition, and that they agreed those incidents.
The tapping revealed the existence of an "agreement" between "the Slovene and the Croatian side" with regard to the incidents, he told state television.
"The Croatian government gave directives when an incident should occur, immediately before elections. Jansa and Sanader agreed when incidents in Piran Bay would occur," said Rop.