Croatia Minister Faces Axe for Taking Cash

Croatian Culture Minister Andrea Zlatar Violic was facing dismissal on Monday following reports that auditors found she took money from the ministry account - only to later return it to the budget in instalments.

The case is seen as a test of the centre-left coalition governments' claim to be more ethically moral than its scandal-ridden, right-wing predecssor.

Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Vesna Pusic - who is also president of the Croatian People's Party, HNS, to which Zlatar Violic belongs - will make the final decision.

Pusic last week said Zlatar Violic would face consequences if the allegations were confirmed.

"I am looking for full information. If all this is true, the minister will have to leave the government," Pusic said.

Ivan Vrdoljak, Economy Minister and also an HNS member, told the media on Monday that talks on Zlatar Violic's removal were ongoing.

"If the findings of the state audit are true, this should not be happening," Vrdoljak stated.

"If what is being said is true, we will have to respond quickly through party bodies; let the party take care of it - it will not last long," he concluded.

Maritime, Transport and Infrastructure Minister Sinisa Hajdas Doncic, from the Social Democratic Party, SDP, the strongest party in government, said she should have resigned already if the allegations were true.

Political analyst and retired professor Zarko Puhovski said the way in which the Zlatar Violic case was handled would test the moral claims of the coalition government - which made much of the issue of ethics in the campaign for the parliamentary elections in 2011.

The issue of ethics had become "a bit lost in the last three years", he remarked. "Now, on the eve of elections, Zlatar...