"It is intolerable that there is no mention of the Coast Guard in the newly-proposed Maritime Code," HSP member of Parliament Tonci Tadic said at a press conference in Sibenik.
Tadic said that his party's proposal was based on the Norwegian and British models of safeguarding and protecting the sea and would include effective control by port authorities, the Marine Police and the Navy of the coastal, territorial and outer seas as far as the boundary of the ecological and fisheries protection zone.
HSP-backed presidential candidate Slaven Letica, who was speaking alongside Tadic, called on Prime Minister Ivo Sanader to set a date for the next presidential election as soon as possible so that all presidential candidates could launch their campaigns. He complained that the incumbent President Stjepan Mesic had been running his campaign for months.
Letica said that the government should call the presidential election by October 18 at the latest in order to ensure equal status for all the presidential candidates.