With less than two months until early parliamentary elections, HDZ meets with smaller parties.
HDZ leadership held on Saturday a series of meetings with representatives of their coalition partners from previous parliamentary elections, but the final decision about which parties will join HDZ for the elections in September will be made by party bodies next week, reports 24sata.hr on July 23, 2016.
“We had discussions with all political parties that have been in coalition with HDZ since the last elections. The talks were frank, we have assessed our cooperation and considered possible new modes of cooperation. During the next week, party bodies will meet and announce our decision”, said Davor Ivo Stier, the nominee for HDZ political secretary.
Asked whether they were in talks with Croatian Conservative Party led by Ruža Tomašić, he said that HDZ had a number of contacts “with other parties and independent experts who can contribute”. He noted that HDZ respected statutory procedures in other parties as well, whose bodies also have to make certain decisions.
After his meeting, HSP AS secretary general Pero Ćorić said that he had an impression that HDZ wanted to continue cooperation with his party, but also added that HSP AS was not interested only in cooperation for the upcoming parliamentary elections. “The main topic was our cooperation on a long term basis. Our goal is to win the parliamentary elections, but also to win the local and European elections. We talked about the mode of cooperation in all these elections”, said Ćorić. He stressed that they wanted to prevent the return of SDP and Zoran Milanović to power. Asked if he would agree to a coalition which would include Ruža Tomašić, who is a former president of his party, Ćorić said they had not discussed it and that it would be frivolous to discuss someone who has no political power.
Ladislav Ilčić, president of HRAST, criticized the lack of communication within the Patriotic Coalition, but added that it could be improved in the next parliament. He said that they did not discuss possible joint participation in the elections. “This was the first meeting, and we will talk in more detail next week”, said Ilčić. He said that media reports that HDZ did not intend to continue their cooperation were speculations.
President of the Croatian Christian-Democratic Party (HDS) Goran Dodig said that they “expressed mutual desire to continue cooperation”. “We will probably meet again next week. We believe that Croatia requires cooperation on the principles of tolerance and understanding. These are basic principles on which we want to cooperate”, said Dodig.
After meetings with current and other potential partners, HDZ bodies will meet on Monday to analyze which parties should be offered a coalition agreement. Unofficial sources believe that HDZ will not continue its cooperation with HSP AS, HRAST and ZDS. It is expected that HDZ will go to the polls together with HSLS and HDS, and is also in discussions with some other parties, such as HRID, led by former HDZ deputy president Drago Prgomet.
