The SDSS Presidency did not consider today whether SDSS members of parliament would cease giving support to the HDZ in the Sabor, and SDSS leaders declined to tell reporters anything about this topic.
They only reiterated that cooperation at the national level was not possible without cooperation at the local level.
The SDSS took particular exception to the HDZ's forging a coalition in Knin with the the Croatian Party of Rights (HSP), the Social Liberal Party (HSLS) and the Croatian Bloc (HB) to establish the local government without the SDSS.
At the 15 May elections, the SDSS won eight seats in the 17-seat Knin Town Council. The HDZ won six seats, the HB two and the HSP one seat.
SDSS Vice President Milorad Pupovac said after today's session of the party's leadership that the latest developments in Knin meant "putting an end to political pluralism and yet another division of Croatia on an ethnic basis".
"After this coalition, Knin has again become a town of fears and divisions which were overcome," Pupovac said, adding that the developments in that town were "a direct attack on the SDSS-HDZ agreement, a large part of which refers actually to cooperation at the local level".
He also said that the reason for which right-wing and centre-right parties, including the HDZ, refused to cooperate with the SDSS was "partly due to their opposition to the return of Serb refugees" and partly due to an attempt to maintain lawlessness in Knin.
Pupovac said that SDSS councillors in Osijek-Baranja County assembly would not for the time being support the HDZ.
SDSS President Vojislav Stanimirovic said that the "destiny of the agreement with the HDZ is in the hands of Prime Minister Sanader and not the SDSS", adding that this was not an attempt to blackmail the HDZ but that the SDSS only insisted on the consistent implementation of the signed agreement and the Constitutional Law.
He said that his party would insist on the participation of Serbs in the government of Vukovar-Sirmium County, referring to the Croatian government's letter of intent defined before the peaceful reintegration of the Croatian Danube Region Area in the late 1990s.