The survey conducted by the Puls agency shows that 37 per cent of the public would likely vote for the SDP-HNS coalition, 13% would certainly vote for it, 10% very likely and 14% likely, Pusic told the press in a break of an HNS Main Committee session.
Asked if the HNS leadership was interested in such a coalition, she said "it is wise to listen to constituents". She added the two parties had no programme disagreements or differences that could not be resolved.
Asked if that would also be the case if Milan Bandic was elected SDP president, Pusic said that given the HNS' experience with the Zagreb mayor in governing the capital, Bandic's election as SDP leader was not a guarantee that the HNS would be able to implement its programmes.
Asked who would be the coalition's candidate for prime minister, given that the HNS has proposed Radimir Cacic and the SDP mentioned Ljubo Jurcic, Pusic said the starting position was that each party would have its candidate, as well as candidates in constituents, and that the rest would be the result of agreement.
"When the SDP finishes the job (intraparty elections), they can contact us," she said.
Speaking of the Puls survey, Pusic said 60% of the public feels the incumbent government is headed in the wrong direction and only 30% that it is doing a good job. "That was the same result at the end of the term of the coalition government when it lost the elections."
Pusic said the main objections to the incumbent government were low wages, the low standard, expensiveness, bribery, poverty, corruption and the sale of Croatian property.
She underlined that the demands of Croatian citizens and the European Union, directed towards the reform of the economy and the state administration, coincided with the HNS' programmes. "The HNS' programmes are not pre-election but post-election ones," Pusic said, adding that the party's task in the next six months was to assure citizens that it was capable of carrying them out and that it would not abandon them.
Pusic said the HNS' rating had risen since autumn 2006 to 9.1% and that currently it ranked fourth, behind the SDP, the HDZ, and the HSLS-HSS-PGS coalition, and that Cacic led the way as candidate for prime minister.