ZAGREB, 16 Feb 2022 - The Državne Nekretnine state property management company on Tuesday said that the renovation of the state-owned basement used by Prime Minister's chief-of-staff Zvonimir Frka-Petešić, had been conducted in line with law and regulations.

"The renovation of the pertaining basement space in Zagreb was planned within the company's regular business activities and the project was also made public within the company's public procurement operations' plan for 2021", Državne Nekretnine stated in a press release in response to media reports that that the 83-square-metre large basement was renovated and refurbished at a price of 417,000 kuna.

"During the advertised public procurement tender for this project, a total of six bids were submitted, and an independent task force selected the most favourable bid", Državne Nekretnine said, adding that the most favourable bid was HRK 333,707.

The renovation was conducted to keep the state-owned property in a good state of repair, it emphasized.

Asked about the renovation of the basement where his chief-of-staff Frka-Petešić keeps his books, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Tuesday that the Državne Nekretnine state property management company would explain everything.

"That has nothing to do with him. This... shameful, orchestrated lynching campaign that has been going on against Frka-Petešić for a month is one of the more stupid, irritating and mean things in the media and internet sphere," said Plenković.

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ZAGREB, 30 Jan 2022 - The prime minister's chief of staff, Zvonimir Frka Petešić, said on Saturday that President Zoran Milanović was using a low level of incitement and a tabloid rhetoric against him and using him to discredit PM Andrej Plenković and his cabinet.

"President Milanović promised normality in his campaign, but no one expected this low level of incitement, this tabloid rhetoric," he told Jutarnji List daily, adding that the president's attempt to use him to discredit the prime minister and his cabinet is a "pathetic and futile attack. It won't work. We are not the same nor can we be."

"Milanović is making rude insults, fabrications and false accusations with the intention to hide his own scandals, doing particular damage to Croatia on the international level," Frka Petešić said, adding that Milanović is acting like that "probably because he thinks it improves his approval rating."

This raises the issue of the president's accountability and morality, he said, adding that Milanović has deeply hurt him and is repeatedly calling him a criminal by using the fact that during his term in office, he cannot be held to account and is hiding behind the security of his position.

"I repeat, I am not a permanent resident of Zagreb nor did I falsely register my permanent residence. I acted as instructed by the competent services at the Interior Ministry," Frka Petešić said in the interview ih which he explained why he had applied for an official flat in Zagreb.

Asked if he was considering resigning as a liability to the government and the prime minister, he said that if anyone found a property in his or his wife's name in Croatia or anywhere else, they should report it and he would immediately resign.

Asked why he had asked for an official flat in Zagreb if he has one in Zagreb's Dubrava District, Frka Petešić said he and his family have been living in Zagreb since 2011 as tenants.

"I'm not the owner of any property nor will I be the owner of the flat I was given to use and for which I pay HRK 5 per square metre, at the same price and rules as other officials, in line with a decision from 2001. Also, as a tenant, I have been paying Zagreb's local tax of 18%, the highest in the state, as all Zagreb residents."

He added that he has not "evaded paying even one lipa, as some who have been writing about me these days have done", and that he has not defrauded the state budget. "Everything else is a fabrication and a political campaign against me, in which the president has now joined, too."

Asked why he registered his permanent residence in Sali on Dugi Otok island just a day before taking office, Frka Petešić said that was incorrect and that he did so "a month after taking office, while I was applying for an official flat. Among the documents required was the certificate of permanent residence, although a place of permanent residence is not a requirement for being allocated a flat."

He said it had been a mistake not to register permanent residence for the whole family in Sali. "We were busy moving and packing, and my wife planned to regulate that after the move, but she forgot. Now that's been corrected and she registered her permanent residence in Sali, as did my older daughter, while their temporary residence is registered in Jurišićeva Street in Zagreb.

He added that a day after moving into the official flat in Jurišićeva in mid-October, he registered his temporary residence there.

Asked why his family is still registered as living at a friends' flat in Zagreb, Frka Petešić said it was an administrative error that was corrected after he reported it to the police.

"My family has been living with me the whole time," he said, except the younger daughter who is studying in France. "As I explained, we all have permanent residence in Sali and temporary residence in Zagreb, in Jurišićeva, in the official flat where we live while I hold this temporary office. According to the relevant services at the Interior Ministry, that was the only logical option in our atypical situation."

Frka Petešić said he was told at the ministry that he would have committed a misdemeanor only if he had registered permanent residence in Sali and been living in Zagreb without having registered temporary residence in Zagreb. He added that all his ancestors were from Dugi Otok and that is his only connection to the island.

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