"We are in favour of talking with the HDZ and trying to solve outstanding issues, but we are not in favour of a coalition because there are too many strategic and political differences between us, there are too many contradictions in the HDZ's work," Racan said at a press briefing.
Asked to comment on HNS leader Vesna Pusic's statement that the HNS would not form a coalition with the SDP in the Zagreb city government if SDP member Milan Bandic ran for the mayor, Racan said that the SDP would not allow its personnel policy to be run by other parties, but that it was still open to cooperation.
"If Bandic is chosen to head the (election) list, we will be responsible for the party's election results, but Bandic will not be responsible for other parties' election results," Racan said.
Speaking about the meeting with Sanader, Racan said that Parliament Speaker Vladimir Seks and his deputy Mato Arlovic, who are in charge of solving the parliamentary crisis, had invited him last Friday to a meeting which was also attended by Sanader. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss cooperation on the road to the European Union and ways to solve the parliamentary crisis, he said.
"We will continue to hold such meetings with the HDZ and we won't allow anyone to limit those meetings or their topics," Racan said.
The SDP leader said that he failed to notify other opposition parties of the meeting because it had been called at short notice. He added that the SDP would not have anything against other parties holding talks with the HDZ.
Racan dismissed objections, particularly those coming from the HNS, that he and Sanader had agreed that the HDZ should drop its request to establish a commission to investigate HSS leader Zlatko Tomcic and senior HNS member Radimir Cacic and that the opposition should drop its request to establish commissions to investigate Sanader and former Foreign Minister Miomir Zuzul.
"I dismiss insinuations that we decided to dissolve commissions of inquiry, it never entered our mind to speak and decide on somebody else's behalf," Racan said.
He stressed that the HDZ leadership seemed to be willing to accept the opposition's requests, which he said would put an end to the parliamentary crisis, which was caused by the opposition's dissatisfaction with the parliament's vote of confidence in former Foreign Minister Miomir Zuzul, who recently resigned over allegations of conflict of interest and corruption.