Serbian minority leader talks about negotiations on forming the government.
SDSS vice president and Serbian minority MP Milorad Pupovac said on Sunday that his party was ready to support HDZ as a centre-right party, but they would not support it if certain appointments were to call that into question, reports HRT on September 25, 2016.
Responding to a question about possible support to Zlatko Hasanbegović as a minister in the new government, Pupovac said that his party’s position was known to HDZ. “We were ready to support HDZ when it was a centre-right party. That was the case in 2004 and 2007, and it will be so now again. If something were to change that, that would seriously call into question our willingness to support such policies. Croatia needs a strong centre-right party, because it is necessary in a long-term”, said Pupovac.
“We want for Croatia to turn towards the future, not the past, to its democratic potential, and not to the undemocratic resources of its past. We want minorities in Croatia to be recognized as part of that democratic potential. Those who are not able to recognize that, they cannot be our partners”, he concluded. Asked if they would support Hasanbegović for a position in Parliament, Pupovac said they would have to see about that.
Speaking about negotiations on forming a new government, Pupovac said that it would be good for minorities to have their representatives in the government at various levels – from assistant ministers, state secretaries, board of directors of certain companies, but that he personally had no ambition to become Deputy Prime Minister. “I am focused on Parliament and my job at the Faculty of Philosophy.”
Commenting on Plenković’s statement that he expected support from minorities through Parliament, but not through the government, Pupovac said they were in a process of negotiations. “We will hear his arguments for such an approach, and I am sure that he will listen to our arguments”, he said.
Asked if Zoran Milanović was “a petty chauvinist”, as he was called after recordings of his meeting with representatives of veterans were leaked, Pupovac said that Milanović should not be judged just in the context of that conversation and his statements, some of which were offensive to both Serbs and Croats. “Milanović is a more complex and more positive person than that.”
As for the referendum taking place in the Republika Srpska, Pupovac said he would prefer that it did not happen, but added that he hoped there would be willingness to talk after the referendum. “The future of Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina cannot be guaranteed without the cooperation of the other two peoples. They have to find a way to cooperate”, he said.
