RIJEKA/SISAK, March 20 (Hina) - Social Democratic Party (SDP) MP Slavko Linic said on Saturday incumbent Prime Minister Ivo Sanader used to accuse the former SDP-led ruling coalition when he was in the opposition of treason for
cooperating with the war crimes tribunal in The Hague while his Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) was now implementing the same policy the SDP did then.
RIJEKA/SISAK, March 20 (Hina) - Social Democratic Party (SDP) MP Slavko
Linic said on Saturday incumbent Prime Minister Ivo Sanader used to
accuse the former SDP-led ruling coalition when he was in the
opposition of treason for cooperating with the war crimes tribunal in
The Hague while his Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) was now
implementing the same policy the SDP did then.#L#
Speaking at the fifth convention of the SDP's Rijeka branch, Linic
said the SDP had always had the same attitude to the Hague tribunal
the while the HDZ changed its views.
As for the incumbent authorities' efforts to make Croatia join the
European Union, Linic said this was also the SDP's objective. Its
realisation calls for increasing competitiveness, he added.
Linic said the HDZ was leaving insufficient funds for development
because it had to pay what it promised before elections to its
coalition partners, pensioners and ethnic minorities. He added the
announced GDP growth rate of 1.9 percent did not bode well and would
increase unemployment.
Participants in today's convention also addressed changing the party
statute, which the leadership maintains is necessary owing to the
party's lack of success at last year's parliamentary elections.
Another SDP member of parliament, Antun Vujic, said the party should
become more modern.
Addressing an electoral convention of the SDP branch in Sisak, a
member of the SDP presidency and an SDP MP, Davorko Vidovic, has said
that this party welcomes the change in the HDZ's position on
cooperation with the Hague tribunal.
Vidovic said the SDP, the major opposition party, would not organise
protest rallies to give the HDZ a hard time. "We will help them in a
bid to respect laws on cooperation with the Hague tribunal," Vidovic
said alluding to rallies the HDZ staged when it was in opposition and
the coalition government received indictments from The Hague.
"The former coalition government insisted on complying with the laws
on cooperation with the Hague tribunal, and those who have now changed
their position on that court used to stage protests, tie themselves
with chains, and label the legally elected government as being a
traitor," the SDP official said.
(Hina) ha ms