ZAGREB, Oct 19 (Hina) - Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) president Ivo Sanader called on members at a Zagreb rally on Sunday "to full mobilisation and a fierce and decisive battle" to make the party win parliamentary elections due to
take place on Nov. 23.
ZAGREB, Oct 19 (Hina) - Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) president
Ivo Sanader called on members at a Zagreb rally on Sunday "to full
mobilisation and a fierce and decisive battle" to make the party win
parliamentary elections due to take place on Nov. 23. #L#
Sanader called on citizens to go to the polls and give their vote to
the HDZ, which he said would form the next government.
He announced the HDZ would support a stable rate of exchange for the
national currency as well as tax relief, and stimulate export and
small and medium-sized enterprise. The party has also drawn up an
agricultural programme and a set of measures for previously war-
struck areas, he said.
"Let's show those who are in power now that this experiment of
theirs, which lasted less than four years, will end on November 23
and that Croatia will at last sigh in relief," Sanader told the
rally which pooled some 3,500 people. "We won't settle for apathy
and despondency. We won't allow for the Croatian people to lose
confidence in Croatian politics and Croatian institutions."
Recalling the difficult times the HDZ went through after losing the
3 January 2000 parliamentary elections, Sanader said the party
showed that it was strong and decisive to undergo consolidation.
He said the incumbent ruling coalition would disintegrate after the
election, and that elections for Zagreb were likely to follow
soon.
Vice president Jadranka Kosor said the HDZ would restore dignity to
Croatia and all of its citizens, notably to war veterans and their
families, laid-off police, women and mothers.
She estimated the HDZ would win the election with 35 percent of the
vote and again be the strongest party in the country, and said that
Sanader, as future prime minister, would lead Croatia into the
European Union.
Other HDZ Presidency members slammed the incumbent government in
their addresses for the high external debt and failure to resolve
the unemployment issue, and accused it of having brought into
question everything that had been done in the first decade of
Croatia's independence.
(hina) ha