Zeljka Antunovic told a news conference on Tuesday that evidence to accuse the government lay in the unreliable reactions of Prime Minister Ivo Sanader and other members of the government and the ruling HDZ to the scandal. She said they told untruths and tried to divert attention to some other scandals which they considered less serious.
Antunovic said government spokesman Ratko Macek initially declined to confirm that Sanader and HDZ MP Miomir Zuzul had met with Pliva's leaders in Verona in late June, only to say a couple of hours later that they had been in Verona, but to go to the opera and not discuss Pliva. She added that eventually Sanader relativised the whole story.
Antunovic went on to say that in order to disguise everything, the HDZ spoke to the media about the involvement of secret services and Privredna Banka Zagreb in lobbying for the sale of the state's share in Pliva.
She accused the prime minister of deluding the public because he changed his position about the sale of the state's share in Pliva three times. In March and April he dismissed any thought of selling but changed his mind after Verona claiming that the price offer will not be the deciding factor, only to say yesterday that the shares will be sold to the best bidder, she said.
The SDP wants Sanader to publicly say why he secretly left Croatia for two days since coming into office, why he and Zuzul secretly met Pliva's leaders, and who paid for the trip and accommodation of the HDZ officials and their families in Verona.
Democratic Centre leader Vesna Skare-Ozbolt today said that the government had shown its preference for one side in the Pliva sale and had changed its position on the sale of its shares in the company after the Verona meeting.