Ivan Penava, president of the Homeland Movement, has demanded the dismissal of Tomislav Bilandžić, State Secretary at the Ministry of the Interior (Ministarstvo unutarnjih poslova). Bilandžić had previously publicly supported the police and Minister Davor Božinović, thereby opposing the stance of his own party.
On Facebook, Bilandžić wrote that, as a retired long-serving employee and manager in the Croatian police, and now State Secretary at the Ministry of the Interior, he gives full and unconditional support to the work of the Croatian police. This directly contradicted the criticism issued by his party leader the day before.
A source from the Homeland Movement told Jutarnji list that Penava is appalled by his State Secretary's move. "It is completely unacceptable what our State Secretary has done," the source stated.
The day before, Penava had sharply criticised the police and the Ministry of the Interior. At a press conference in Split, he said it was a hunt initiated by the Ministry of the Interior through the publication of a wanted poster. He added that the Ministry had decided to "pump this topic to the point of unconsciousness".
"Of course, you encountered many among you in the media who were only too happy to do so," Penava said. He also asked if this was the "Wild West", adding that he hears some from the Croatian Journalists' Association (Hrvatsko novinarsko društvo) complaining that journalists feel like they are on wanted posters. He concluded by asking who had started that hunt and tirade.
On Tuesday, Penava sided with Torcida, attacking journalists, the police and the Ministry of the Interior. The conflict within the coalition intensified further after his own State Secretary publicly supported the institution that Penava had sharply criticised the previous day.
