ZAGREB, Nov 24 (Hina) - The president of the Croatian Peasants Party (HSS), Zlatko Tomcic, said on Sunday that he had received support from his party's chief committee for the concept that the HSS could in the future cooperate with
all parties which would recognise HSS's programme.
ZAGREB, Nov 24 (Hina) - The president of the Croatian Peasants Party
(HSS), Zlatko Tomcic, said on Sunday that he had received support
from his party's chief committee for the concept that the HSS could
in the future cooperate with all parties which would recognise
HSS's programme. #L#
The chief committee, which held a session in Zagreb on Sunday,
endorsed a suggestion by the party Presidency that Zlatko Tomcic be
the only candidate for HSS president for the next four years, while
Ljubica Lalic, Luka Trconic and Petar Jurusic be vice-presidents.
Tomcic's concept of party management, which was embraced by the
chief committee, envisages the HSS as a party which will
participate in the government even after the next parliamentary
elections.
"I received support for the concept that we not be slaves to any
future participation in a government based on right wing and left
wing divisions," Tomcic told reporters. He added that such
divisions were today mostly of declarative quality, while the
pragmatics of certain parties was utterly different.
Asked whether this meant that the HSS was prepared to cooperate in
the future with parties outside of the current ruling coalition,
Tomcic said this was a "theoretical implication", but "still an
issue of a special decision".
"For now this is HSS's stance in principle," Tomcic said.
"Depending on the development of events, parliamentary elections
are possible as soon as next April," Tomcic said, adding that it
would not be appropriate to wait for the last constitutional
deadline (the spring of 2004) and have elections take place during
the Christmas and New Year holidays.
Tomcic did not wish to comment on factors which could lead to early
elections.
"Follow the work of the parliament and government and you know about
misunderstanding over some crucial issues, and at any time the
critical limit is possible to be overstepped which cannot be
tolerated," he told reporters.
He said the HSS was politically prepared the elections and believed
in a better electoral result than some questionnaires were
predicting.
Tomcic reiterated that is wanted this ruling coalition to last as
long as possible.
(hina) lml