The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture of Croatia, the far-right Josip Dabro, resigned this Saturday from his positions in the government of the European country in the face of the scandal generated by the dissemination of a video in which he appears shooting with a pistol through a window from a moving car.
“I present my irrevocable resignation as Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries for moral reasons,” Dabro announced in a statement published this morning on his Facebook account.
“I am aware that the circumstances in which I find myself create an additional burden for both the government and my party,” he added.
According to the Croatian newspaper JutarnjiDabro plans to maintain his organic positions in the Patriotic Movement party (DP), of which he is general secretary. The DP is the minority partner in the ruling coalition, led by Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic’s conservative Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ).
In the European Parliament, the DP is a member of the ‘Patriots for Europe’ group, to which far-right groups such as the Spanish party Vox or the Italian Fratelli d’Italia, to which Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni belongs, belong.
Dabro will also maintain his parliamentary seat, adds this newspaper, which has unleashed the scandal by making public this Friday the video that shows him firing a pistol from the passenger seat of a car while driving through a residential area. The video was recorded a few years ago, when Dabro was not yet part of the Government. Dabro has acknowledged the veracity of the images.
“We consider that this conduct and use of firearms are inappropriate and irresponsible,” says the Croatian Government in a brief statement, reproduced by local media throughout the morning of this Saturday.
The Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation to clarify whether Dabro committed any crime on that occasion, in which it was not reported that he had caused victims. Additionally, ballistics experts consulted by the Croatian newspaper Index They have confirmed that, due to the sound and shape of the detonations, the minister fired live ammunition.
The rest of the political parties have demanded the resignation of the minister, who would also have received strong pressure from Prime Minister Plenkovic, the newspaper notes. Jutarnji. In addition, the Social Democrats have demanded the calling of early elections.
In his message today, Dabro expressed his regret for “maneuvering bullets in a reckless moment.”
According to Croatian media, Dabro’s dismissal this Saturday by Prime Minister Plenkovic is considered done. Secretary of State Tugomir Majdak will assume his duties on an interim basis in the Ministry of Agriculture until a successor is appointed.
This resignation joins more than a dozen cases in which ministers from the conservative HDZ party left their positions when they were implicated or involved in corruption scandals and abuse of power.
In addition, members of the far-right DP party have defended the minister and accused businessman Mario Radić, who left the party in September 2024 to form his own party, of being behind the leak.
Mario Radić, who launched his new populist right-wing formation, DOMiNO, in the same month of September, stopped giving parliamentary support to the current government coalition in the month of November amidst accusations against the Executive of using the Croatian State “like a cash cow.”
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