ZAGREB BRANCH HASN'T FALLEN APART WITH DEPARTURE OF 14 MEMBERS ZAGREB, Feb 20 (Hina) - The Croatian People's Party (HNS) has dismissed speculation that with the departure of 14 members from the Zagreb branch, the entire HNS in the
city fell apart, and refuted a series of accusations which former leaders of the city's branch, Mislav Zagar and Kresimir Franjic, levelled against some people in the HNS, at their news conference on Thursday when they explained reasons for their departure.
ZAGREB, Feb 20 (Hina) - The Croatian People's Party (HNS) has dismissed
speculation that with the departure of 14 members from the Zagreb
branch, the entire HNS in the city fell apart, and refuted a series of
accusations which former leaders of the city's branch, Mislav Zagar
and Kresimir Franjic, levelled against some people in the HNS, at
their news conference on Thursday when they explained reasons for
their departure. #L#
"Those who have left the HNS are 14 losers, 10 of whom were chairmen
of the local branches in the city that had made the poorest results at
the parliamentary elections," the HNS central board said in a press
statement on Friday. It added that this party had 2500 members in the
Croatian capital.
Commenting on Zagar and Franjic's allegations that the HNS president,
Vesna Pusic, claimed that credit should go to her for the party's good
performance at the 2001 local elections, the press release described
their statement as extremely malicious, and added that the party had
not managed to pass the electoral threshold in Zagreb in the past but
only with the arrival of Pusic at the helm of that party and her
candidacy for the city's mayor, the HNS won over 17 percent of the
vote in Zagreb.
The party leadership also dismissed allegations that some individuals
in the ranks of the HNS made a fortune through the
government-subsidised programme for the construction of flats, namely
the so-called POS programme.
"The HNS is today a liberal, civil party that bases its activities on
high-quality people and high-quality projects. In such an environment,
all cannot meet high human, expert, intellectual and moral criteria
required by the engagement of this kind. The departure of the 14
members from the HNS proves that they have understood this and drew
consequences. Other things are a flimsy excuse," Friday's press
release read.
On Thursday, Zagar and Franjic also said that they and another 12
members of Zagreb's HNS were leaving the party "because of
dissatisfaction with and lack of democracy in the party".
(Hina) ms sb