HSLS PRESIDENT ACCUSES RULING COALITION OF "SUSPENDING PARLIAMENT"

ZAGREB, July 17 (Hina) - The president of the Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS), Drazen Budisa, has accused ruling coalition deputies, including parliament president Zlatko Tomcic, of having suspended the supervisory function of parliament over the executive authority by voting against a motion that the government submit to parliament agreements on the sale of a majority package of Croatian Telecom stock to Deutsche Telekom. #L# By a majority vote, parliament dismissed the HSLS' motion to bind the goverment to submit the agreements to parliament within eight days. Budisa said that by doing so, the parliamentary majority today reduced parliament "to the transmission of political will from the government to the parliament hall through party mechanisms". Nenad Stazic of the Social Democratic Party said that by dismissing the HSLS motion the parliamentary majority had shown responsibility. He recalled that the first agreement on the sale of Croatian Telecom stock was signed in 1999 during the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) rule. He said the then government labelled the agreement as confidential. "Today we are asked to annul the agreement, for which we would be punished because Croatian citizens would be forced to pay penalties, so Budisa's plea doesn't hold water," Stazic said. Ljubica Lalic of the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS) said that it was an HSLS minister who signed the second agreement, dated 2001, on the sale of 16 percent of Croatian Telecom shares. "The HSLS then defended stands on business privileged information, which is why we believe their statements today are mere politicking," Lalic said. (hina) it sb