EX-HDZ OFFICIAL PASALIC TO SET UP NEW PARTY ON SATURDAY

ZAGREB, Sept 11 (Hina) - A new party called the Croatian Block will be a movement with the aim of stopping the process of de- tudjmanisation, a former senior official of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), Ivic Pasalic, told Hina on Wednesday. #L# Pasalic, who was recently ousted from the strongest opposition party, announced the founding assembly of his new party for Saturday. He said the Croatian Block would not be a copy of the HDZ, but a true modern and populist party. He said the core of the staff of the new party would be people who backed him when he had stood the election for the HDZ President. He also said his intention was to gather young and educated people who so far had not been engaged in the politics. Pasalic's party will have six members of parliament: besides Pasalic, Zdravka Busic, Milan Kovac, Krunoslav Gasparic, Ivica Tafra and Ivo Bajica who have announced that they will leave the HDZ. Pasalic is sure that all the processes on the Croatian political scenes indicate the wish for the formation of a future coalition of Social Democrats with his former party HDZ. He believes that the time will show whether the only reform inside the HDZ was the ouster of Pasalic or whether the current HDZ leaders Ivo Sanader, Vladimir Seks and Branimir Glavas have actually stopped the democratisation of the HDZ through their showdowns with party colleagues. As regards the Croatian True Revival, led by the first Croatian President Franjo Tudjman's son Miroslav, Pasalic said he would cooperate in forms usual in parliamentarism. (hina) ms