ZAGREB, Oct 30 (Hina) - President of the Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS) Drazen Budisa on Monday evening held talks with Croatian President Stipe Mesic on constitutional amendments. After the meeting Budisa told reporters that
during the talks they expressed hope that all crucial issues regarding constitutional amendments would be harmonised within agreed deadlines. Budisa also told reporters he accepted Mesic's invitation for talks. The HSLS President said during the talks a series of political questions about the current situation were tackled, particularly emphasising parts of talks referring to the constitutional amendments. He stressed the HSLS believed there was no alternative for the parliamentary system, adding that the HSLS will support the parliamentary system in constitutional changes regarding the competence of the President of State and the responsibility of the Government to
ZAGREB, Oct 30 (Hina) - President of the Croatian Social Liberal
Party (HSLS) Drazen Budisa on Monday evening held talks with
Croatian President Stipe Mesic on constitutional amendments.
After the meeting Budisa told reporters that during the talks they
expressed hope that all crucial issues regarding constitutional
amendments would be harmonised within agreed deadlines.
Budisa also told reporters he accepted Mesic's invitation for
talks.
The HSLS President said during the talks a series of political
questions about the current situation were tackled, particularly
emphasising parts of talks referring to the constitutional
amendments.
He stressed the HSLS believed there was no alternative for the
parliamentary system, adding that the HSLS will support the
parliamentary system in constitutional changes regarding the
competence of the President of State and the responsibility of the
Government towards the parliament.
Mesic and Budisa also discussed whether the competence of
intelligence services should be regulated by the Constitution.
The HSLS believes that the competence should not be constitutional
material, even though at the moment the monitoring over those
services is established in the motion of constitutional
amendments. This could also be amended, however, this is not
crucial for the HSLS, Budisa stressed.
He stressed it was important how this issue would be regulated in a
law on the national security.
During the talks, Mesic and Budisa cleared misunderstandings
caused by statements the two officials gave to media. Budisa said
Mesic elaborated his alleged statement reading "Who is Budisa?", as
well as the one Budisa gave reading "Whether the President should be
the chief?".
After the talks, Croatian President Mesic did not give statements
to reporters.
Budisa came to the meeting with the President after he held three-
hour talks with Prime Minister Ivica Racan. Budisa and Racan met to
discuss misunderstandings and disagreements of heads of the HSLS
and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) regarding constitutional
amendments. According to Budisa, they agreed that the HSLS and SDP,
in the next upcoming days, would try to solve all issued regarding
the constitutional amendments.
(hina) it jn