Addressing an SDP Main Committee session, Milanovic said the party's candidates would show in the election that they were different and better, the only right option in Croatia in the current situation. "That is what we must prove to citizens. After all, they are the only ones who matter."
Milanovic said one should distinguish between politicians and those who were not politicians or pretended they were, adding that politicians should behave responsibly. He said the president of the HSP AS party, Ruza Tomasic, a candidate on the HDZ's slate for the EP, was irresponsible yesterday when she said that Croatia was for Croats and that all others were quests.
Milanovic said Croatia was joining the European Union as a country that waged a destructive war less than 20 years ago and that it should consider which messages it was sending. "We must watch what we say. Who are the guests in Croatia? Who is a Croat? What defines me as a Croat? Despising a Serb?" he wondered, adding that such statements were unacceptable from politicians running for the EP.
He said such statements were evil and irresponsible because no one had the right to determine who was and who was not a Croat.
Milanovic said the SDP, the HNS and the HSU would advocate a progressive Europe without borders, "unlike this other Europe which is closed, which separates us and you, emigrants, members of national, ethnic minorities, which advocates expelling them and closing the borders... That's exactly what the SDP is not," he said.
He went on to say that the importance his cabinet attached to science would be visible in a budget revision, with profits to be partly taken from public companies, if possible, and used to reduce the budget deficit as well as for research and development.
Milanovic said he was glad the president decided to separate the EP and local elections, voicing confidence that most people realised that it was an attempt to discuss European topics but also to hear the other side, "statements about intolerance, xenophobia and being closed."
He said the campaign would be relatively short but that citizens would know what and who they were voting for, which worldview they were choosing and what they wanted Croatia to be in the EP.
Milanovic recalled that this past week the last hurdle to Croatia's EU accession was removed, voicing confidence that after the signing of the memorandum of understanding with Slovenia, nothing stood in the way of the two neighbours being the best of friends.
Concluding his address, he hoped he had not "provoked" anyone with his statements. "I weighed my words, but I won't allow them to shut us up and prevent us from saying what the public needs to hear. Whatever we say, we never insult or separate people on national, religious or ethnic grounds and we never have."
At today's session, the SDP Main Committee is expected to confirm 12 candidates for the SDP-HNS-HSU slate for the EP.