"You never heard me mentioning communism in my statements. For me communism is history, but for him it still isn't," Sanader said in response to questions from the press at the Zagreb Faculty of Agronomy.
"I wouldn't comment on what he meant because it's difficult to say what he meant," Sanader said, adding that Racan "means one thing one day and another thing the next".
Asked if he had recently met or spoken to President Stjepan Mesic in connection with an agreement initialled with Austria on compensation to foreign citizens, Sanader said he had not because Mesic had been away and that he himself had been on a trip.
"The president and I cooperate well and talk about everything and there are no problems between us at all," said Sanader.
He was also asked to comment on the results of a public opinion poll, published today, which saw a fall in his and the popularity of the HDZ. The poll was conducted by the Metron/Vectura agency on 450 people yesterday. Sanader said he attached more importance to being respected than popular, and that popularity data in his possession indicated otherwise.
"In Croatia we must respect laws and the rule of law. It is what we fought for and won and it is a principle of a democracy. When the Constitutional Court withdraws its decision and the lawmaker changes the law, we'll act accordingly," said Sanader.