To corroborate her statement, Skare-Ozbolt, a former justice minister, cited excerpts from an interview given by European People's Party President Wilfried Martens, in which he eulogised Sanader and criticised the leader of the strongest opposition party in Croatia, Ivica Racan.
Skare-Ozbolt said Martens exerted pressure on the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS) to change its attitude towards the leading HDZ party and announced that he would monitor activities of the Croatian Party of Rights (HSP).
According to Skare-Ozbolt, all of this can be qualified as Martens's interference in Croatia's internal affairs.
She told a news conference in Zagreb that Sanader had lobbied for his remaining in power which she said was more important to him than Croatia's speedy achievement of European standards.
Commenting on the political wrangling between Sanader and Racan, she said that they behaved as "gossipers ignoring real problems of Croatian society".
Commenting on the results of some opinion polls showing that the DC would muster about 15 percent at the early local election in the town of Velika Gorica on Sunday, Skare-Ozbolt said this proved that voters wanted to have a third option and that "they are fed up with the left-wing and right-wing parties".
"The DC and I have shown that we want to be the third option," she said.