Speaking at a news conference in Osijek on Saturday, Antun Kapraljevic said that "the story about a war over commissions of inquiry" started only after the HNS put forward its demand, adding that "somebody obviously does not want the commission to be established".
Kapraljevic said that the HNS had rejected what he called the offer of mediation by the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in talks on abolishing all investigative commissions, after which some MPs withdrew their signatures from the demand to set up the commission for Sanader and Zuzul. Signatures were withdrawn by Sime Lucin of the SDP and Zlatko Kramaric and Ivo Banac of the Liberal Party (LS).
"It seems that Kramaric and Banac have started rapprochement with the Croatian Democratic Union, but does not know how to do it, which is why the establishment of the commission is being blocked," the HNS official said.
Asked to comment on SDP leader Ivica Racan's recent statement that the HNS considered the SDP a rival, Kapraljevic said that this was normal on the political scene.
Asked about a possible coalition between the two parties at local elections, Kapraljevic said that the final decision had not been made yet and that a possible coalition depended on the SDP's position on problems in Zagreb (which is governed by an SDP-HNS coalition government) and its support to the HNS' proposal to set up the said commission of inquiry.