"By using immoral and illegal means, the HDZ is trying at all cost to preserve its power and the effects of its rule over the past 15 years," SDP leader Ivica Racan said at a press conference in Zagreb commenting on the change of power in Sisak and a recent session of the Pozega County Assembly.
The Mayor of Pozega, Zdravko Ronko, dismissed accusations that he was behind attempts to oust the coalition of the HDZ, the Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS), the Croatian Party of Rights (HSP) and the Democratic Centre (DC) from power in Pozega County, where an HSP councillor had refused to support the 2006 budget and had been replaced by the HSP.
"This is about a conflict within the ruling coalition, because some people cannot support the criminal, cowboy-style and illegal methods anymore," Ronko said.
He said that the Central State Administration Office had not responded to three "well-founded requests" for a team of inspectors to be sent to the county, that the Ministry of Finance delayed payment of KN14 million to the Pozega town government for a building it had bought and that it was not responding to a request by the local government for a loan.
Davorko Vidovic described his ouster as mayor of Sisak as a gross and primitive move by the HDZ-led coalition that went against the will of the people expressed at elections.
Vidovic was relieved of his mayoral duties at a session of the Sisak Town Council, which was attended by 17 councillors of the coalition of the HDZ, the DC and the HSLS, the HSP and two SDP councillors. His removal was approved by the Central State Administration Office.
Vidovic said that the HDZ-led coalition had won 25 per cent of the vote at elections, and accused the HDZ and the HSP of blackmailing and bribing councillors. He said he would file an appeal with the Constitutional Court against the ruling by the State Administration Office.
Comparing the Sisak branch of the HDZ to the Italian Mafia organisation Cosa Nostra, Vidovic said that with the SDP in power in Sisak the HDZ feared possible criminal prosecution and its financing channels being severed.
Racan concluded by saying that the two cases should be resolved by calling snap elections in Pozega and Sisak.