Addressing a meeting of the party's main committee in Karlovac on Sunday, Skare-Ozbolt said that time had come for Croatia to be led by a government of professionals rather than one consisting of politicians who only make compromises.
She said that the DC was beginning an election campaign on Monday and that its main concerns would be the rule of law, production and exports, reduction of profit tax and income tax to 15 per cent, reduction of value-added tax from the current 22 per cent to 15 per cent in three years' time, division of the country into five regions, and putting a stop to the sale of state-owned land.
The DC leader called on voters not to support the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) of Prime Minister Ivo Sanader for its failure to carry out the promised reforms and ensure development. She said that the present government had no political or economic strategy.
Speaking of the resignation of Ivica Racan as the president of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Skare-Ozbolt said that her party did not share the SDP's political views, but commended Racan for peacefully taking Croatia out of a one-party system into a multi-party democracy and for introducing a new model of government based on a political coalition.
The DC today adopted two election programmes - one advocating the strong rule of law and the other concerning agriculture.