The meeting was attended by some 3,000 HDZ members and sympathisers as well as by the entire party leadership, HDZ Chairman and Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, nearly all government ministers, Parliament Speaker Vladimir Seks and all HDZ members of Parliament from the counties of Virovitica and Osijek.
Addressing the convention, Sanader reiterated that one of the main tasks of his government was Croatia's entry into NATO and the European Union.
"Croatia must be where decisions are made and not at the door. We must be at the table and say what we think, because we've had enough of people deciding for us, but without us," the Prime Minister said.
The party leaders used the convention to present the HDZ candidate for the post of President of the Republic.
Sanader said that the HDZ had not made a mistake by nominating Deputy Prime Minister and Family and War Veterans' Affairs Minister Jadranka Kosor as their candidate.
Kosor thanked her party colleagues for nominating her and pledged to continue her struggle "for Croatian war veterans, women, family and all deprived citizens of Croatia".