"Stipe Mesic cannot say that he will offer a strategy for Croatia's economic development. What has he been doing for the last five years? He cannot delude the Croatian people like that," Sanader said at a ceremony marking the 15th anniversary of the establishment of the HDZ branch in Split.
Sanader said that "due to such deceits" he was calling on Croatian citizens to vote for the HDZ presidential candidate Jadranka Kosor, who he said was the only presidential candidate who cared for war veterans and the destitute.
Sanader went on to say that he would not let Mesic "smear the government" because this was not envisaged by the Croatian constitution.
The PM said that his cabinet was "the first Croatian government to have succeeded in halting all the negative trends".
In 2004, for the first time since Croatia gained independence, " exports rose by 16 percent, and imports by a mere five percent". "We created 20,000 new jobs. Those are facts. We had the best tourist season in 2004 despite unfavorable forecasts at its start. And we achieved all of this in the first year of our term in office," Sanader said.
This proves that "the government has a strategy for economic development, and it is producing results. True, this cannot still produce an effect on the budget of ordinary citizens, but living standards will improve if we continue with this trend," the HDZ leader said.
According to him, the main goals of his government are to promote state and national interests, which is also put down in the candidate Kosor's platform, he said.
"This is the goal which (the first Croatian President) Franjo Tudjman defined and here I pay all my respects to him, because he was among the first to set as a goal Croatia's admission into the European Union," Sanader said.
Sanader added that his government was also committed to policy of tolerance and reconciliation, which was why he extended seasonal greetings to Serbs who celebrated Christmas according to the Julian calendar on January 7.
"This is a policy of the Holy Father. This is what Cardinal (Josip) Bozanic says. However, nobody will use our position, and we shall not let anybody threaten Croatia. We shall not in any way tolerate Chetnik symbols which appeared in some areas on Orthodox Christmas Eve," Sanader said.
Kosor, who is the HDZ Vice President, told the gathering that at the end of the first round of the presidential election she had achieved two main objectives: she would compete in the second round of the polls, and she proved that Mesic was not invincible.
"I will win on January 16," Kosor said in Split.
In the first round of voting on January 2, Mesic won 48.92% of votes and Kosor came in second with 20.30%. As none of the 13 candidates won fifty percent plus one vote, the run-off involving the first two candidates, Mesic and Kosor, will be held on 16 January.