ZAGREB, April 13 (Xinhua) -- Croatian parliament rejected on Friday the opposition's no-confidence vote against Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Martina Dalic.
With 76 "no" votes and 71 "yes", the narrow majority in the parliament supported the minister whose resignation was sought because of an alleged conflict of interest in handling the Agrokor case.
Agrokor, the biggest retailer in the region with more than 40,000 employees, has been led by an extraordinary management that was appointed by Croatian government since the company was hit by a debt crisis in January 2017.
In February 2018, the state-appointed crisis manager Ante Ramljak stepped down after media revealed lucrative deals between Agrokor and the company he used to work for as a consultant on restructuring program. The opposition parties claim that the minister of economy should also resign because of her political responsibility.
The initiator of this no-confidence vote, Nikola Grmoja, a member of the third strongest party in the country, the Bridge of Independent Lists, explained on Thursday during a parliament debate that the minister of economy was crisis manager's political sponsor.
However, the majority in the parliament rejected on Friday opposition's claims. The motion of no-confidence vote came just three days after Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic told reporters that the settlement process between Agrokor's creditors had been completed.
"A crisis that would affect the entire Croatian economy has been prevented," Plenkovic said.