RULING COALITION SLAMS HDZ PROCLAMATION URGING EARLY ELECTIONS

ZAGREB, Sept 30 (Hina) - Senior officials of the two strongest parties in Croatia's ruling six-party coalition said on Saturday the HDZ, by urging early parliamentary elections, wanted to cover up its internal conflicts. "To cover up the internal drama, the HDZ dramatises to the outside," Dorica Nikolic, vice president of the Croatian Social Liberal Party, told Hina when asked to comment on today's proclamation by the strongest opposition party, the Croatian Democratic Union, which called on the Croatian people to use all democratic means to express disagreement with what it says is dangerous conduct by the regime, and urging early parliamentary elections. "On whose behalf are they calling on the Croatian people, this is what one should ask," said Nikolic. "It is an attempt to cover up and eliminate conflicts within the HDZ by seeking an external enemy," Hina was told by Zdravko Tomac, the vice president of the Social Democratic Party. Nikolic and Tomac agree the proclamation should not be paid too much attention. "I think it shouldn't be taken too seriously," said Tomac, adding the opposition was always entitled to urge early elections. Officials of the other four parties making the ruling coalition also commented on the HDZ proclamation. Vesna Pusic of the Croatian People's Party said the proclamation clearly showed that there existed a "collusion and coordination among all the elements which have recently been working at destabilising the state, with very active participation from the HDZ." She stressed one of the main tasks of the incumbent government was to stabilise institutions and make them work, as well as to respect the law. "In its ten long years in power, the HDZ showed that they never took laws seriously. They thought (the laws) served only when someone in power could use them for personal gain, and not to stabilise institutions and make the state function," Pusic said, adding this was corroborated by today's proclamation. "Now that they are no longer in power and have lost the voters' trust, then it pays to subvert even the fundamental (state) institutions only to protect personal gain and prevent both the public and the judiciary from getting a more detailed insight into the conduct of individuals," Pusic added. Liberal Party's Zlatko Kramaric said the HDZ proclamation "adds fuel to the flames on the already turbulent political scene." He is surprised the strongest opposition party should react this way, and fears it may further radicalise the situation. Damir Kajin of the Istrian Democratic Assembly says the proclamation is "HDZ nonsense" and that the government should not fear the proclamation, but its own unpopular steps. Stanko Grcic of the Croatian Peasants' Party said HDZ's call for early elections was intended to cover up its own misdeeds, and that everything the HDZ had done in recent months was aimed at early elections. According to Grcic, the HDZ and its structures in state bodies are behind all recent political activities. "These are well-planned activities whose aim is to subvert the democratically elected authorities," he said. Grcic said the general opinion was that the HDZ was a party in disintegration and that it should be let to disintegrate by itself. Mate Granic of the Democratic Centre, not in the ruling coalition, said his party was not satisfied with the political and economic situation in the state, and that they thought the time was not right for early elections. (hina) ha