ZAGREB, May 14 (Hina) - Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) leader Ivo Sanader on Friday rejected a newspaper article saying that members of the family of the HDZ founder and first Croatian president, Franjo Tudjman, had been erased from
party membership.
ZAGREB, May 14 (Hina) - Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) leader Ivo
Sanader on Friday rejected a newspaper article saying that members of
the family of the HDZ founder and first Croatian president, Franjo
Tudjman, had been erased from party membership.#L#
"That's not true. Newspapers write all sorts of things," Sanader said,
adding that one of Tudjman's sons had established a Social Democratic
party in the early 1990s and that he had recently founded another
party, Croatian True Revival (HIP). "He, therefore, has never been a
member of the HDZ, but all the others (family members) are HDZ
members," he added.
"That is misinformation and we don't pay any attention to it, because
all sorts of things were written about the HDZ in the past. We are
first and foremost interested in what Croatian voters think as the
highest democratic authority, and what they think is good," Sanader
told reporters after a wreath-laying ceremony at Zagreb's Mirogoj
Cemetery marking the 82nd anniversary of Tudjman's birth.
Tudjman's wife Ankica, who lit candles on her husband's grave together
with her family, told reporters that she had learned from the media
about her and other family members having been erased from HDZ
membership, and that she was surprised.
HIP leader Miroslav Tudjman, who laid a wreath and lit candles on his
father's grave on behalf of his party, said that "HDZ president
Sanader thinks one thing, does another and says the third."
Jutarnji List daily said in an article released in its Friday edition
it had information confirmed by the HDZ's General Secretariat that
Ankica Tudjman and her children Nevenka and Stjepan were no longer
members of the HDZ.
"The Tudjman family was simply erased from HDZ membership during the
membership revision that was initiated by the party leadership at the
start of last year. Anyone who wanted to renew their membership had to
fill in a form and submit it to their local committee so that a new
membership card could be made at the head office. Longtime members
Ankica, Stjepan and Nevenka Tudjman have not done this, so their names
are no longer in the HDZ records," the article said.
"Ankica, Nevenka and Stjepan Tudjman have not renewed their
membership, so now they are not members of the HDZ," the party's
deputy secretary general Vladimir Kurecic told Jutarnji List.
Also on Friday, a delegation of the Croatian Bloc (HB) party laid a
wreath and lit candles at a bust of Franjo Tudjman in his place of
birth, Veliko Trgovisce, about 30km northwest of Zagreb.
(Hina) vm