ZAGREB, 16 Feb 2022 - The opposition said on Wednesday that Economy Minister Tomislav Ćorić "should have been gone long ago" not just due to suspicion of involvement in the Krš-Pađene wind park case but also due to his inaction.

"Ćorić should have been gone long ago. Now is just a matter of the prime minister's will whether he will keep a minister for whom there are serious leads on involvement in a crime worth billions," said Social Democratic Party president Peđa Grbin.

He recalled that parliament discussed a confidence vote in Ćorić 14 months ago and that the wind park was one of the reasons. "The only difference is that as of yesterday we have an email and the deposition of a person directly implicating Ćorić in breaking the law and a case costing Croatian citizens almost HRK 2 billion."

"Today it's even clearer how much damage he is doing to the ministry he heads," Grbin told the press.

Marijan Pavliček of the Sovereignists said Ćorić should say "clearly" if he had given orders to his associates and known what had been going on. He called on the authorities to do their job as well.

He said Ćorić was known only for the wind park case, that he was not responsible for any major investment, but he should be held to account primarily over his inaction.

Stephen Bartulica of the Homeland Movement said Ćorić must explain his former associate's claims that he had done everything in the wind park case on Ćorić's orders. "Politics has too much influence on the real economy. The temptations to abuse office are too big," he said, calling out Ćorić for showing no reform vision.

Bartulica warned about the possible outcome of an opposition request for a no-confidence vote in Ćorić.

"Many should have been gone long ago, the whole government perhaps, but the fact that some opposition groups are trying to exploit the situation by requesting impeachment could result in the saving of vulnerable ministers."

He said the ministers who were implicated in serious scandals and had proven to be incompetent should be sacked.

Sandra Benčić of the Green-Left Bloc said this group had already initiated an interpellation concerning Ćorić's connection with the Krš-Pađene case and said that he was the weakest link in the government.

Asked if it was odd that Ćorić had not been questioned, she said it was and that during the parliamentary debate on the interpellation, the opposition had presented many leads.

"We are waiting for USKOK (anti-corruption office) to do its job because it's inconceivable that such a close associate is a suspect and his superior has not even been interrogated", Benčić said.

Anka Mrak Taritaš of GLAS said Ćorić had been connected to the wind park case for a long time and that "the prime minister is a little jumpy" because quite a few ministers "have skeletons in the closet" and should be replaced.

For more, check out our politics section.

ZAGREB, 15 Feb 2022 - Economy Minister Tomislav Ćorić said on Tuesday that in 2019, as minister of environmental protection and energy, he had in no way favoured investors in the Krš-Pađene wind park who are under investigation by the USKOK anti-corruption office, of which he has been accused by a former assistant.

"I inherited the Krš-Pađene case in 2017 when I took the office of minister of environmental protection and energy, and after several consultations with the State Attorney's Office, we solved that case at the ministry in 2017," Ćorić told the press.

He said the ministry's decision was upheld by the Constitutional Court and the High Administrative Court and that it was the last decision by the ministry that had legal effect in that case.

Ćorić said that he had in no way influenced an opinion issued by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Energy in 2009.

He said he would be available to the authorities "at any moment" and answer all their questions concerning Krš-Pađene, and that since the case was under investigation, he could not say more.

According to the Telegram web portal, Ćorić's former assistant Domagoj Validžić, one of the persons USKOK suspects of having favoured the investors in the wind park, claims he did it at Ćorić's request and that the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Energy, which Ćorić ran at the time, gave a positive opinion on the wind park even though, USKOK contends, the investors had not met all the requirements.

According to the media, Validžić told USKOK investigators that Ćorić had asked him to meet the investors' demands.

Telegram says Validžić told investigators that Ćorić had asked him about a letter from the investors and that he concluded that the minister had received "some information from the other side and that the letter existed and that it would be sent to the ministry."

Ćorić also wanted to know who at the ministry was in charge of a document that had to be drawn up for the investors, the media say. When Validžić told him it was Zoran Pačandi, head of the energy department, Ćorić allegedly said that Pačandi should be "relieved of some tasks so that he can hurry up that document" and that "the ministry's response should be positive for the investors."

The media say that Ćorić asked Validžić to send him the ministry's response via email before sending it to the investors and that Validžić gave the email to the investigators. Validžić reportedly told investigators that the letter was sent to the investors with the state secretary's signature.

According to the media, Validžić relayed his talks with Ćorić to Pačandi and that draft opinions were usually not sent to the minister.

The government sacked Validžić in April 2021 when USKOK started investigating him for abuse of office to the benefit of CEMP, a company owned by Milenko Bašić. According to USKOK, the opinion whereby the investors' demands were met was made only based on the law on renewables, while regulations on obtaining preferential electricity producer status were disregarded.

USKOK suspects Validžić disregarded those regulations so that he could favour CEMP in agreement with Josipa Rimac, the then Public Administration Ministry state secretary and a former mayor of Knin.

USKOK's investigation has covered Validžić, Rimac, Bašić as well as Krunoslav Jakupčić, former president of the Board of the Hrvatske Šume forest management company; Dragan Stipić, executive director of Bašić's Lager company; Ivan Melvan, a former Hrvatske Šume executive; and Tomislav Jureković, a former director of the HERA energy regulator.

Also reported were former Gračac mayor Nataša Turbić, former Knin town councillor Marinko Tokmačija, former assistant economy minister Ana Mandac, former Agriculture Ministry chief of staff Ružica Njavro, and entrepreneurs Josip Ravlić, Ante Sladić and Nikola Lapčić.