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Zagreb - The Croatian Parliament on Friday adopted the report on the work of state attorney's offices in 2021 by a vote of 76 to 56, confirming its confidence in State Attorney-General Zlata Hrvoj Šipek.
The opposition's motion for the government to submit to parliament a proposal for the dismissal of the State Attorney-General was rejected.
The report by the State Attorney-General for 2021 had been on parliament's agenda for more than nine months, which prompted the Bridge party to launch a signature-gathering initiative to speed up discussion on the report and bring Hrvoj Šipek to parliament.
The opposition parties wanted to hear from the State Attorney-General why she had shelved the documents concerning the Software Affair and why the case was only picked up by the European Public Prosecutor's Office in Croatia, which resulted in the arrest of former Minister for EU Funds Gabrijela Žalac.
They also wanted Hrvoj Šipek to answer their questions about the latest Text Messages Affair concerning the Hrvatske Šume forest management company, in which Prime Minister Andrej Plenković's closest aides and a person referred to as AP are mentioned.
During the hearing, Hrvoj Šipek dismissed the allegations that her office (DORH) and the USKOK anti-corruption office were protecting certain individuals as untrue and malicious. She said she had never deliberately concealed or covered up any information.
She said she did not keep PM Plenković informed of ongoing inquiries and that she had never communicated with former state secretary Josipa Rimac about a wind farm.
The opposition insisted that she was lying, that she lost confidence and that she should step down, which she refused.
Opposition: DORH headed by a compromised person
"Who still believes DORH while it is headed by a deeply compromised person?" Domagoj Hajduković (Social Democrats) asked before the vote.
Krunoslav Katičić of the ruling HDZ said that the report for 2021 had nothing to do with current political issues. He added that the sweeping assessments made by the opposition were based on circumstantial evidence while ignoring presumption of innocence.
Bridge MPs responded by saying that Katičić was in a conflict of interest because his name was mentioned in text messages that leaked to the public. "As long as you are behaving like attorneys for Hrvoj Šipek, you are writing her verdict in the eyes of the public," Marija Selak Raspudić told the HDZ MPs.