Some 30 deputies asked to take the floor, with deputies of the People's Party (HNS) and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) criticising the government and calling it to account, while deputies of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) said the criticisms only weakened the clampdown on crime.
Vesna Pusic (HNS) insisted that the parliament "must not give up on its responsibility to control the government, which must answer for lack of care for the property of Croatian citizens".
"I cannot accept the fact that criminal acts such as bribery and corruption in the HFP are not reason enough to call the government and four government ministers to account," Pusic said.
Andrija Hebrang (HDZ) said that exactly by uncovering corruption in the HFP the government was demonstrating responsibility, and that claims by HNS and SDP deputies were "an attempt to water down the government's initiative to investigate crime".
Pero Kovacevic of the Party of Rights (HSP) warned that the main problem was the fact that state institutions were not sanctioning 1,481 irregularities that were discovered during the audit of 1,556 privatisation cases.
"We expect institutions of the rule of law to act in such cases through an agency for the confiscation of unlawfully acquired property, to be established in the future," Kovacevic said.
Marin Jurjevic (SDP) said that citizens perceived politicians as "a privileged class to which rules do not apply". He added that there was no reason for the government to boast the financing of the Office for the Suppression of Corruption and Organised Crime (USKOK) since it was obligated to do so.
Vesna Skare Ozbolt of the Democratic Centre (DC) said that she did not share the government's euphoria over the anti-corruption operation "Maestro", which she said was launched at the end of the government's term as a pre-election move.
She added that government ministers who were being called to account would be defended in parliament today, but that this autumn the prime minister would replace them "as he usually does".
Citing mechanisms that had been introduced in the HFP to make the privatisation process more transparent, Deputy PM Damir Polancec said that "it hurts to see members of the HFP Steering Board called liars and dullards".