HSS president Beljak claims that some members boycotted the party at the elections.
HSS president Krešo Beljak announced today that he has temporarily suspended from the party around 100 members, including MEP Marijana Petir and Darko Koren, the Prefect of Koprivnica-Križevci County, reports Večernji List on September 14, 2016.
Beljak said that HSS’s elections results would be better if some of HSS officials had not obstructed the campaign. “HSS Main Committee has made certain decisions before the campaign. One of them was that, in those areas where results would be substantially different than the situation on the ground, there would be sanctions”, said Beljak, who used his powers and temporarily suspended about a hundred members. Among them are some of the most prominent HSS officials, like Koren and Petir.
“This does not mean their expulsion from the party, but only that we have started certain proceedings, and they have the right to an appeal”, said Beljak. He added that those who apologized would not be sanctioned. “I am not a dictator. I proposed a decision which was backed by 84 percent of the members of the Main Committee. Those who do not agree with that should not be in HSS. It is very simple”, said Beljak, alluding to a decision made in July to leave HDZ’s coalition and join SDP-led People’s Coalition, which ultimately lost the election. “If the membership thinks this was not a good decision, then I will no longer be party president”, he said.
Beljak congratulated HDZ on its victory and expressed his hope that a government would be formed as soon as possible. “We will be a constructive opposition”, said Beljak. He added that HSS’s result was better than at last elections. He thanked voters and coalition partners for their confidence. “I hope that this cooperation will be good in the future as well”, said Beljak.
Beljak said that behaviour of MEP Marijana Petir was unfair and that she should had appeared at some campaign events. Petir reacted to Beljak’s decision, and said that he made it because he feared she would run for party president. “Beljak has destroyed the reputation of HSS and has to go. He was not honest with the party membership, and he entered into a coalition that membership did not support, which resulted in the defeat in the parliamentary elections. I call on Beljak to step down from his position of party president”, wrote Petir on Facebook.
