ZAGREB, January 27, 2019 - The former president of Croatia and leader of the non-parliamentary Forward Croatia party, Ivo Josipović, announced on Saturday that next week he would begin talks on merging his party with the Social Democratic Party (SDP).
Speaking in an interview with Croatian Radio, Josipović said that he was not entering into talks with the SDP to be the SDP's presidential candidate, adding that he would support former SDP leader and prime minister Zoran Milanović in the presidential race if he showed that he was able to defeat the incumbent Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović at the ballot box.
Josipović said that his talks on joining the Civic Liberal Alliance (GLAS) had ended in failure because that party wanted the new party to be predominantly liberal rather than social democratic, while the SDP had recognised the need for uniting leftist liberal opposition parties. He said he was certain that this process would continue and that talks would be launched with two more parties.
Josipović said that the moves made by SDP leader Davor Bernardić to unite similar centre-left parties were very good. "The mood in the SDP about my return is very positive, despite a few dissenting voices," he said, announcing that a majority of 1,100 members of his party would join the SDP.
Josipović resigned from the SDP after becoming President of Croatia early in 2010. Five years on, he ran for a second term in office but was defeated by the incumbent president Kolinda Grabar Kitarović, who was nominated by the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ). He did not return to the SDP then, but instead formed the Forward Croatia party.
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