PRESIDENT MESIC RECEIVES DELEGATION OF HDZ

ZAGREB, June 5 (Hina) - Croatia's President Stjepan Mesic on Monday received the President and the Secretary-General of the HDZ, the strongest opposition party HDZ, Ivo Sanader and Joso Skara respectively. After their talks in the President's office, Sanader said they had come at an invitation of President Mesic. Hailing such an initiative, the head of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), said such talks were in the interest of cherishing the culture of dialogue and opposite political positions. During the talks it was also advised that for Croatia's benefit, political parties should reach consensus on key issues, Sanader said. We warned President Mesic that we would not accept the current authorities' treatment of HDZ members or a policy of replacement of people on the ground, he added. We agreed that it would be good to reach agreement on the code of conduct during the take-over and changes of top state authorities. This means that we should define which of state offices should see changes and the manner for carrying out replacement, the HDZ leader said. Sanader maintains that it was unnecessary to dismiss and change management and executives of companies, as the leaderships of firms should include the most skilful rather than politically most suitable people. It is not good what the ruling six-party coalition is doing, appointing people, under the political party quotas system, to leading posts in those companies, Sanader complained. We told President Mesic that the HDZ should not accept that only white and black colours are used for the description of the last ten years. We in the HDZ are proud of what has been accomplished. There were, however, mistakes and failures and we paid for that at January 3 parliamentary elections, Sanader concluded. (hina) mm ms