ZAGREB, April 8, 2018 - Serb National Council president Milorad Pupovac extended his best wishes to the Christian Orthodox faithful for Easter on Sunday, stressing the importance of peace in building a good life.
"All of us public figures are aware that we do not live in a country where the spirit and culture of peace has prevailed for decades. There are a lot of things that we need and one of those that we need the most is peace. We should stop the war stories, the war rhetoric and rows which are of no use either to those involved or to society in general. We should focus on efforts where peace makes sense and that is building a good life and ideal trust," Pupovac told reporters after attending the Easter liturgy in the Temple of the Transfiguration of the Lord in Zagreb.
Asked to comment on a poll which showed that a coalition of right-wing parties would cross the election threshold and whether he was concerned about it, Pupovac said he did not know "what gives cause for greater concern, covert right-wing policies within the existing parties or openly right-wing policies that existed before."
He said that the most important thing for Croatia was that there should be no "cryptopolitics" in its mainstream parties but that those parties should foster tolerance, pluralism and the constitutional order.
Asked to comment on arguments about "clericals and anti-clericals" within the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), which is a coalition partner to his Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS), Pupovac said: "These arguments only show that political processes that are happening had to happen and that it has to be clear what is what and who is who. Democratic politics may be and are connected with Christianity, with the Church and other religions, but democratic politics that is based on clerical ideologies and clerical types of authority is incompatible with the democratic politics which we have known for centuries in the modern world."
