Croatia’s conservative Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic survived a no-confidence vote in parliament Friday that was called by the opposition following a high-profile graft investigation.
Croatia has long struggled to contain rampant government corruption, with more than a dozen ministers from Plenkovic’s centre-right HDZ party stepping down since 2016.
During that time two ministers suspected of corruption were arrested, including health minister Vili Beros who was taken into custody last month.
He was sacked immediately after the arrest.
The case with Beros included several other suspects, according to European prosecutors, and involved a scheme that included overpaying for operating microscopes by more than 600,000 euros ($633,000) at taxpayers’ expense.
The arrests sparked fresh outrage over the state of the country’s ailing public health system.
On Friday, a total of 76 lawmakers in the 151-seat parliament voted against the no-confidence motion, while 64 backed it.
The motion was launched by the main opposition Social Democrats (SDP) party.
“Mafia elements in state structures are Plenkovic’s political responsibility,” the SDP said in the motion, citing a series of corruption cases.
Plenkovic rejected the claims calling them “lies” and “defamation”.
“We’ve been more outraged by the affair than you and regret it more”, the prime minister said in a statement.
In power since 2016, Plenkovic kicked off his third term in office after his HDZ party won a majority in April’s parliamentary elections.
The fight against corruption was a key criteria for Croatia’s entry into the European Union in 2013, but graft still remains endemic.
A staggering 96 percent of Croatians consider corruption to be widespread, according to a EU Eurobarometer survey, which was the second highest it has recorded.
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