ZAGREB, May 28, 2019 (Hina) - The Prime Minister and president of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), Andrej Plenković, on Monday evening again commented on the results of the European Parliament election at which his party won four seats in the EP, saying he did not have complaints about the HDZ slate, platform and campaign, that all county and town HDZ branches would analyse the election results by the end of the week and hat this was only one game but that the championship continued.
Asked if the party would continue to run independently in elections, Plenković said this was the best decision.
Reporters asked Plenković if he would now place a conservative candidate on the slate given that the conservative part of the party had turned their backs to him. Plenković answered in the negative. "This is a fabricated argument," Plenković said.
Asked if in his opinion voters in the elections sent him a message that they do not like the way he was leading the party, given that conservative options received together 18% of votes, Plenković said he was leading the HDZ and the country in the right direction. He also said he did not plan to resign.
The Croatian Democratic Union secretary-general and parliament speaker, Gordan Jandroković, said on Monday that the result which the ruling party scored in the European Parliament election on Sunday was below-than-expected, however, the HDZ was still the first party that won the most ballots.
Coming to a session of the the party leadership in Zagreb, Jandroković said that the party bodies would analyse the outcome of the vote. The HDZ and the strongest opposition party the SDP won four seats each out of a total of 12 seats allotted to Croatia in the European Parliament. The party mustered the support of 22.72% of the vote, and was followed by the SDP with 18.71%.
HDZ won the highest number of votes in Sunday's European Parliament elections in 11 towns whereas the SDP won in the four biggest cities – Zagreb, Split, Rijeka and Osijek. In the capital city of Zagreb, the SDP garnered about 47,700 votes and the HDZ 30,400.
Jandroković said that the poor performance of the party in big cities would be particularly analysed.
Ivana Maletić, an party vice president and a deputy in the outgoing European Parliament, admitted that it was better to record under-performance in the EP elections than in parliamentary elections. She also underscored that the HDZ was "short of only a few ballots" to win a fifth seat in the EP.
Asked by the press whether it was too risky to put a young and not well-known candidate (Karlo Ressler) in first place on the slate, Maletić said that that decision had been very courageous and resolute. She believes that during the campaign Ressler gained publicity. According to the results, Ressler mustered nearly 53,000 preferential votes.
Asked by the press whether the HDZ should form a coalition with right parties, Maletić says that the HDZ definitely had to run in the EP elections on its own and without coalitions.
Some other party officials agreed that the HDZ had expected five seats and that despite the final result, the HDZ was again the strongest political option, mustering the highest number of votes.
More news about HDZ can be found in the Politics section.
