ZAGREB, June 21 (Hina) - Liberal Party (LS) president Ivo Banac said on Saturday the LS did not expect much from the ruling coalition and that it was perfectly clear it was not the coalition but the Croatian public that was the
party's ally.
ZAGREB, June 21 (Hina) - Liberal Party (LS) president Ivo Banac said
on Saturday the LS did not expect much from the ruling coalition and
that it was perfectly clear it was not the coalition but the
Croatian public that was the party's ally. #L#
Opening a session of the party's main committee, Banac said the LS
was participating in the incumbent ruling coalition "at the very
margin and with growing disgust".
The lack of seriousness of "the bulk of Croatia's politicians" is
the main reason why politics in Croatia is despised, said Banac.
"People who have turned parliament into a circus, the government
into an institution ready for posturing but incapable of any
serious change have no credibility, let alone vision," said Banac,
adding "we are living in a system in which the majority of
politicians have not a trace of courage, in a swamp without criteria
or will among most political players to come out of it".
Alluding to the case of fugitive Hague war crimes tribunal indictee
Ante Gotovina, Banac said Croatia "has been ostensibly searching
for two years for a person who hasn't had the courage to come before
the International Tribunal, which has been established by the
United Nations and which has been confirmed by a Constitutional Law
adopted in the Croatian Parliament, and say: 'By some accident, I
was a general of the army which was liberating Croatian territory
from a criminal gang set up by one of the darkest figures in the
history of this part of Europe'".
That person should have said that, if in that enterprise crimes were
committed against Croatian Serbs, he assumes the responsibility
for that or does not, for this or that reason, Banac said.
"When that person realised that running away isn't promising, it
transpired that our so-called right-wing, which literally lived
off that person for a full two years, was comprised of paper lions,
paper tigers," Banac said, adding the right-wing was now in a row
over their protege.
"And what to say about the authorities, about a prime minister who
is assuring you that stability constitutes constantly retreating
from opponents, about a deputy prime minister -- a man with a straw
hat, and not just that -- who would arrest the wanted person only at
Pantovcak (presidential residence)? What to say about paper
politicians who have shown their powerlessness, fear and
incompetence?" Banac asked.
"The coalition is not successful because it lacks both courage and
conviction, because it is ruled by fear, corruption and a straw hat
-- Racan's fear, the HSS-HNS corruption and the straw hat."
(hina) ha sb