Addressing reporters in Zagreb on Thursday, the president of the HDZ, Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, called on voters to vote for Kosor, stressing that her qualities included an ability to restore people's trust in politicians and her readiness to care for the most needy as well as all Croatian citizens.
Asked to comment on reports by the election monitoring association GONG on irregularities in the first election round on January 2, Sanader said that reports by the State Election Commission were the only ones he considered credible.
Sanader recalled that Martens was Belgium's prime minister until 1992, and that he has been leading the EPP for 14 years. All those years Martens has supported Croatia and the HDZ and was one of the key factors in Croatia's international recognition, in its obtaining candidacy for membership in the European Union and its winning the date for the start of membership talks without the verification of its cooperation with the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Sanader said.
Addressing reporters, Martens said he was glad that a woman who was the vice-president of the strongest Croatian party and a deputy prime minister was running for president and that she had entered the second election round. He voiced confidence that she would contribute to the democratisation and emancipation of the country.
Martens recalled that 12 of the 25 prime ministers in the European Council were EPP members, that nine of the 25 European Commission members were EPP members, including Commission President Jose Manuel Barosso, and that the EPP had 268 deputies and was the strongest political option in the European Parliament.
Kosor thanked Martens for his support and everything he had done so that Croatia could win the status of an EU candidate and be able to start accession talks. She said that she would represent her country with dignity and prove that Croatia belonged to the community of European peoples.
Several copies of a transcript of a testimony by the incumbent president and presidential candidate, Stjepan Mesic, in the trial of Tihomir Blaskic at the Hague tribunal on 16-18 March 1998, appeared in the HDZ's offices today. Mesic testified for the prosecution in the Blaskic trial.
Asked how the transcripts had ended up in the HDZ offices, party spokesman Ratko Macek said he did not know who had brought the transcripts and that this was the first time he saw them, but that they were certainly interesting.