Sanader was asked to comment on President Stjepan Mesic's address to the nation regarding this issue. Mesic objected to the agreement, saying it was a dangerous precedent whose implementation might endanger the functioning of the state.
Sanader said Croatia was a law-based state and that laws must be honoured.
"It is known that the Constitutional Court adopted a decision under which foreign citizens may be paid damages for seized property. We honour this decision because the previous government, led by Ivica Racan, today the leader of the strongest opposition party, passed a law which said that the Constitutional Court's decision should be honoured, which means that bilateral agreements have to be signed. His justice minister then drew a list a countries with which to sign those bilateral agreements. A commission was also set up to conduct negotiations and two negotiating rounds have been held with Austria," said Sanader.
Party of Rights (HSP) leader Anto Djapic said last night the different views of Sanader and Mesic pointed to a deep crisis of coordinating and seeing foreign affairs.
Djapic said it was bad for state stability that the heads of state and government had opposite views on such significant issues.
He added this difference indicated there would be a fiercely divided parliamentary debate, which he said might even result in an inter-parliamentary crisis.
Djapic said Mesic and Sanader should reach a minimum agreement regarding this issue and that all parliamentary parties should address it as well before the agreement with Austria was withdrawn from parliamentary procedure and its ratification postponed.