ZAGREB CITY ASSEMBLY VOTES CONFIDENCE IN ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT

ZAGREB, March 21 (Hina) - The Zagreb City Assembly on Thursday voted confidence in Assembly president Zdravko Tomac of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) with a majority of the vote. Only 13 councillors of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), who had proposed the vote of non-confidence in Tomac because of his letter to the Council of Europe, voted against. The HDZ councillors said they supported the intention of the letter which urged Croatia's admission to full membership of the Council of Europe despite the political crisis in Zagreb. However, they stressed that Tomac should have called an emergency session to formulate the content of the letter with consensus. "I sent the letter to prevent those international forces which want to keep Croatia out of European integrations," Tomac told the Assembly session. Tomac said that in his meetings with representatives of the international community he had refused to internationalize the issue of the Zagreb mayor, defending a view that it was a Croatian internal issue. In the continuation of the session, the Assembly was expected to discuss confidence in Marina Matulovic-Dropulic, mayor appointed by President Franjo Tudjman, and election of a new mayor and his deputies after Tudjman had refused to confirm the mayor and his deputies chosen by the City Assembly. (hina) vm jn 211846 MET mar 96