SDP OFFICIAL SAYS PARTY PREPARING FOR NEW TYPE OF OPPOSITION WORK IN SABOR

RIJEKA, Jan 15 (Hina) - Social Democratic Party (SDP) vice-president Slavko Linic said in Rijeka on Thursday that the position of the Croatian Democratic Union in the parliament "will not be easy because the SDP is intensively preparing for a new type of opposition work so it can win the majority of votes for some of its bills and enable the implementation of its programmes as the leading opposition party".#L# Speaking at a news conference, Linic said the HDZ now had to show if it was able to offer concrete solutions to a number of issues or was just making empty promises. Linic claimed that the HDZ was using "verbal politics" to win the support of pensioners' associations and other civil associations and minorities. The fact that the new executive and parliamentary authorities were set up in slightly more than a month since the elections shows that Croatia is a politically stable country, Linic said, adding that the SDP's contribution to this was its insistence on the political stability of the country over the past four years. Political stability is a precondition for economic stability and growth, and the economy has begun recovering as a result of it, he said. (Hina) rml sb