SALZBURG, May 23 (Hina) - Croatian President Stjepan Mesic in Salzburg on Friday responded to an accusation by the president of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), Ivo Sanader, that he had "lied" in Munich about the HDZ voting
against Croatia's Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU.
SALZBURG, May 23 (Hina) - Croatian President Stjepan Mesic in
Salzburg on Friday responded to an accusation by the president of
the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), Ivo Sanader, that he had
"lied" in Munich about the HDZ voting against Croatia's
Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU. #L#
"Sanader is insulting, but this is how he is showing who he is.
According to Sanader, the counters of votes in parliament are
obviously to blame, since they failed to count his absent deputies
along with those who voted for the SAA. My logic is not like that. I
believe that criticising the agreement and then leaving during
voting is indeed opposing the agreement. But if Sanader manages to
convince the Croatian public that absence from the vote in fact
means the support for the agreement, this will be a novelty in
parliament's history, not only in Croatia," Mesic said.
During a lecture in Munich, Mesic said that "the HDZ is sending off
mixed signals -- on the one hand its leaders claim that their
loyalty to a united Europe is not in question, but when it came to
deciding on the ratification of the SAA in parliament, the party
voted against".
Sanader yesterday protested against such a statement, saying
"President Mesic is attacking and lying since the HDZ did not vote
against the SAA because its deputies were not even in the parliament
hall (at the time)".
(hina) lml