Croatian Deputy Prime Minister and former Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Josip Dabro. File | Photo Credit: AFP
Croatian Deputy Prime Minister Josip Dabro, a leading member of a nationalist hard-right party, resigned on Saturday (January 18, 2025) after a video surfaced of him shooting at random from a moving car.
The incident is the latest to trouble the government of conservative Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, whose health minister, Vili Bros, was dismissed in November to face a corruption probe.
“I hereby submit my irrevocable resignation,” Mr. Dabro posted on Facebook.
The 42-year-old was also agriculture minister in Mr. Plenkovic’s government.
The video, made public by the daily Jutarnji List earlier this week, shows him sitting in the passenger seat of a moving car, singing to loud music and firing a pistol into the dark.
Lights in the distance appear to show an inhabited area.
“I am aware that these circumstances create an additional burden for the government and my party,” he wrote in his resignation statement.
“My personal situation should not distract the government and the ministry from their priorities or delay necessary reforms,” he said.
He said he had sought to implement “changes” within the farming, forestry and fishing ministry to introduce greater “transparency” and had been subject to “significant pressures and threats”.
“In his initial public reaction to the video on Friday (January 17, 2025) night, Mr. Dabro said it had been filmed several years ago and that he had been firing training bullets,” Hina news agency reported.
The footage appears to show it was filmed in summer.
The government said on Friday (January 17, 2025) night his behaviour had been “inappropriate and irresponsible”.
Mr. Plenkovic’s HDZ party formed a coalition government in May 2024 with Mr. Dabro’s Homeland Movement, which holds nationalist, anti-immigration and anti-LGBT views and advocates banning abortion.
Published – January 18, 2025 05:11 pm IST
