ZAGREB, May 19 (Hina) - The Croatian parliament president and president of the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS), Zlatko Tomcic, said Monday that the ruling coalition had to stay together in order to prepare Croatia for accession into the
EU.
ZAGREB, May 19 (Hina) - The Croatian parliament president and
president of the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS), Zlatko Tomcic, said
Monday that the ruling coalition had to stay together in order to
prepare Croatia for accession into the EU. #L#
"I have no doubts that the coalition must make it to the elections,"
Tomcic told Croatian Radio, stressing that Croatia's candidacy for
membership in the EU was "the most important and responsible
national matter which cannot be compared to any other government
task."
"This is not an issue to be decided by the Social Democratic Party
(SDP), the HSS or any other party, so it is irresponsible to place it
in the context of setting the election date," he said, reiterating
his stand that the parliamentary ballot should be held in November,
about which he said the coalition agreed.
"Proving that we deserve candidacy for the EU is a responsibility of
not only this government, but also the opposition and the entire
public," he said.
In reply to comments that the HSS was trying to score points for the
upcoming election on account of recent droughts, Tomcic said it was
"morbid and utterly uncivilised to reduce the drought problem to a
conflict between the HSS and SDP".
Asked whether estimates about 1.4 billion kuna (EUR187,000) worth
of damage caused by the drought were excessive, Tomcic said the
damage was certainly somewhere around a billion kuna.
Asked to comment on a "public offer" by a member of the Croatian Bloc
to award 350,000 kuna (EUR47,000) to anybody who refuses to
disclose General Ante Gotovina's whereabouts, from which the party
has distanced itself, Tomcic said this was "direct obstruction of
the government's work" to which the law-based state should react.
(hina) lml sb