HSP LEADERSHIP WON'T SUPPORT HDZ-LED GOVERNMENT

ZAGREB, Dec 13 (Hina) - The Croatian Party of Rights' (HSP) central committee on Saturday decided that the party would remain part of the opposition and that its parliamentary deputies would not support the Croatian Democratic Union's (HDZ) minority government as that would reduce the party's status to that of government opposition and lead to political trade which the HSP had never accepted. #L# "The HSP can only support a government it itself is part of, whose key decisions it can influence, and in which it can implement its platform and answer to the Croatian people for its implementation," HSP leader Anto Djapic said after the session of the highest party body. Djapic added that the HDZ, the HSP, the Croatian Social Liberal Party and the Democratic Centre had the duty to try and form a coalition government because an agreement in principle had been reached on that before the elections, however, after the elections the HDZ refused to treat the HSP as an equal partner. He said that the HSP would propose a meeting with the new parliamentary opposition at which it would suggest that the opposition nominate its candidate for parliament vice-president and that deputies take a secret vote on the opposition candidate and the HDZ's candidate. "In light of premier-designate Ivo Sanader's call for an all-party consensus in the next six months, the first step in that direction would be for one of the parliament's vice-presidents to be elected from within the parliamentary opposition because the balance of force between the government and the opposition is very tight," Djapic said. The party body condemns the meddling of some EU ambassadors in the composition of the coalition government, as by doing so they "violate the electoral sovereignty of the Croatian people", Djapic said. (hina) rml sb