The moderate Member of European Parliament is favourite to become new HDZ president.
It was expected that a meeting of the HDZ presidency would be held this afternoon and that members would demand resignation of HDZ president Tomislav Karamarko. However, Karamarko postponed the meeting at the last moment. It now seems that the meeting will instead take place on Tuesday morning, report Index.hr and Večernji List on June 20, 2016.
And while the party is still waiting to see whether Karamarko would resign, according to media reports HDZ’s Member of European Parliament Andrej Plenković will announce that he is ready to take over the party. Many HDZ members would like to see him as the next party president, and it seems likely that their wish will come through.
“He is ready to take over the party and he will soon announce it”, said a source from the HDZ leadership. Plenković was the first who publicly criticized Karamarko during the recent party congress held on 28 May. “The party should not be held hostage to a political fate of any one of its members”, said Plenković at the time, alluding to Karamarko. He added that HDZ had to be careful that they do not repeat things which happened in the party when its president was Ivo Sanader. “Situations which could be similar to those in which our party was a few years ago would be harmful and would certainly be reflected in results of the future elections”, said Plenković.
According to reports, the party leadership is ready to accept Andrej Plenković as the new HDZ president who would lead the party in the forthcoming elections. He is a member of the party's moderate wing and it is expected he would significantly change HDZ's policies and move the party towards political centre.
