Racan was speaking to the press in parliament, commenting on the HDZ's allegations about Plestina, a demining advisor at the foreign ministry, in connection with a poster at an international demining conference taking place in Zagreb.
The HDZ club of deputies requested that Plestina be relieved of her duties because of a poster which showed disabled war veterans from the Bosnian Serb entity in jerseys with "Banja Luka" and "Republika Srpska" written in the Cyrillic script. HDZ circles also claimed that the poster was designed by Maksima Komunikacije, a company owned by Racan's son.
"The fierce attacks on myself and the SDP are yet another proof that Ivo Sanader and his cabinet are incapable of dealing with the consequences of political errors, which I consider the (compensation) agreement with Austria to be, and that they are accusing everyone around them, insinuating and lying," said Racan.
"In a bid to cover up a bad decision and their responsibility for it, Sanader and his storm troopers are trying to shut up critics and create problems which have no relation to that. They are shifting responsibility to the (former, Racan-led) coalition government in the good old HDZ tradition," Racan said, adding the HDZ would not succeed in shutting up the opposition.
He went on to say that Sanader was lying and insinuating when he claimed that in the case of the agreement with Austria on compensation for property seized from Germans exiled after WW2, his cabinet had to act in line with a law which the former government amended under a Constitutional Court decision. Under the amended law, foreigners too may claim back their property seized under the communist rule.
Racan recalled Sanader's statement of September 22 that the amended law only provided for the possibility of signing a bilateral agreement, and a later statement that the agreement was signed because of good relations with Austria, its support for Croatia's affirmation on the foreign policy front, and because Austria had expressed interest in the agreement.
"You can't win over Europe by mere lobbying and giving property, but by assuming responsibility and a good policy towards citizens."
Commenting on the HDZ's accusations today that the SDP was showing its communist, undemocratic face, Racan said that nowadays the worst communist methods were closer to the HDZ.
Plestina said she would state her position on the contentious poster tomorrow.
The International Campaign to Ban Landmines poster shows three disabled veterans from a Bosnian Serb team which took part in an international volleyball tournament in Bosnia in June. A Croatian team also took part in the event. The poster picture is a fragment of a big photograph which also shows members of the Croatian team as well as the Croatian and Bosnian flags. The big photograph is also displayed on the Zagreb Fair premises where the demining conference is taking place.
Commenting on the entire case, the Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration said the Zagreb conference was not organised by the ministry, but an organising committee headed by Plestina. It announced a thorough investigation but declined to comment on the request for Plestina's dismissal.
Spokeswoman Ivana Crnic told Hina the conference was funded solely with donations made to the organising committee and that the ministry's primary role was to liaise between the nongovernmental sector and the government, as the signatory to the Ottawa convention on demining.
Crnic said Minister Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic had not seen the poster and first heard of it today.