ZAGREB, June 5 (Hina) - Commenting on the election of Zoran Milanovic as leader of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), President Stjepan Mesic said on Tuesday he was "young, speaks languages, is educated, and now it is important that
he finds a team with which best to reinforce social democracy in Croatia (as) there is not one serious democracy in Europe in which social democracy does not play a notable role".
ZAGREB, June 5 (Hina) - Commenting on the election of Zoran
Milanovic as leader of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), President Stjepan
Mesic said on Tuesday he was "young, speaks languages, is educated, and now it
is important that he finds a team with which best to reinforce social democracy
in Croatia (as) there is not one serious democracy in Europe in which social
democracy does not play a notable role". Asked to comment on the
fact that Prime Minister Ivo Sanader had not congratulated Milanovic on the
election, Mesic said he himself would have congratulated the new SDP leader as
Sanader would have to congratulate him the first time they met eye to eye
anyway.
Asked about the SDP's success at parliamentary elections in the autumn,
Mesic said surveys showed that the SDP and the ruling Croatian Democratic
Union (HDZ) were replacing each other in pole position and that the government
would be formed by those able to secure a coalition partner as "no party in
Croatia will have the possibility much longer to organise the government by
itself".
The president declined to comment on allegations of Transport Minister
Bozidar Kalmeta driver's involvement in racketeering.