Senior SDP officials held a press conference in Zagreb on Friday, criticising the government for marginalising the Parliament and delaying the start of the autumn sitting of the Sabor in order to keep corruption scandals away from the public.
SDP president Ivica Racan rejected the explanation by the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party that the Parliament session was being postponed until September 27 because of the prime minister's previously arranged engagements, saying that a parliament session could open without Question Time as the first item on the agenda and that the prime minister could answer the questions at a later date, after he returns from his scheduled trip abroad.
"It's impossible because the prime minister has ambitions of a chancellor," Racan said, emphasising that the purpose of constitutional changes six years ago was to introduce a parliamentary democracy rather than a chancellor system.
"The purpose of constitutional changes was not to strengthen the position of one person at the helm of the executive authority or to have a legislature that would be openly submissive to that person," the SDP leader said.
SDP vice-president Milanka Opacic accused the prime minister of controlling the judiciary, saying that the judiciary was doing its job only when it suited him.