HDZ: BUDISA INTERVIEWS POINT TO SHAKY RELATIONS IN RULING COALITION

ZAGREB, Dec 18 (Hina) - Drazen Budisa's recent press interviews indicate that relations within the ruling coalition are very shaky, Ivo Sanader, the president of the strongest opposition party, the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), said on Tuesday. In the wake of the Budisa interviews, Sanader maintains that relations between the Social Democrats (SDP) and the Social Liberals (HSLS), which are the foundation of the five-party ruling coalition, are evidently unstable. Sanader says this is the result of SDP's evident assuming of the master's position within the coalition. He maintains the Budisa interviews also indicate that a part of the Hague war crimes tribunal, the prosecutor's office in particular, is politicised. Referring to Budisa's allegation that chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte had told Deputy Prime Minister Goran Granic she hoped the names of Croatian generals Rahim Ademi and Ante Gotovina among the indicted would suit the government politically, Sanader said somebody must answer for such a statement. "The HDZ and the Croatian public want Prime Minister Ivica Racan and his deputy to clearly say if that is true," he added. Commenting on the government's two years in office, he said announcements of turning the semi-presidential into a parliamentary system had amounted to nothing. The entire power is concentrated within the government, while parliament is a "voting machinery," says Sanader. All this indicates the ruling coalition relies on poor foundations, and that it was formed with the sole purpose of toppling the previous, HDZ-led government, he maintains. Sanader believes the coalition will break up in 2002 and the reputation of the HDZ rise. Budisa is a candidate for the presidential post in the HSLS. (hina) ha