Speaking to the press in the southern coastal city of Split on Saturday, Racan said HDZ leader and Prime Minister Ivo Sanader nonetheless understood "that there can be no consensus with the man whose resignation we demanded in Parliament".
"The SDP feels that Zuzul cannot lead the negotiations, but that wasn't the term to agree to cooperate with the Ivo Sanader Cabinet," said Racan. He thus joined Sanader's denial of Jutarnji List's allegation that Zuzul's resignation had been the condition the SDP had set in order to cooperate. The allegation was made two days ago, with the newspaper citing Racan himself as its source.
Racan said he had still not made his mind up about Sanader's offer that he chair the National Committee for the Supervision of EU Negotiations.
Racan said the SDP was cooperating with the HDZ in foreign affairs so that national interests were protected as best as possible during the negotiations. He dismissed claims that he and the SDP were blindly following Sanader's initiative. "This is about a joint project supported by the SDP and which the SDP will work on whether it is in power or not."
Racan said that insinuations about an SDP-HDZ coalition were being made by those which in fact cooperated with the ruling party in some regions. He added an SDP-HDZ coalition was not possible on the local level either.
He voiced hope that if the EU entry project was not closed before the next parliamentary elections, the HDZ would continue to work on its realisation even if in the opposition.
Commenting on the recently published summary of a contract on the sale of Croatian Telecom shares to Deutsche Telecom, which was signed by the previous, SDP-led government, Racan said that "elements of that contract mean nothing without the publication of the contract from 1999 which was signed by the previous HDZ-led government".
Asked if the SDP would support a law on the direct election of mayors, which the Social Liberals and the Liberal Party are expected to send to parliament, Racan answered in the affirmative.
He said he expected the SDP to win in all major regions in the forthcoming local elections.