ZAGREB, March 1, 2020 - Croatian People's Party (HNS) president Ivan Vrdoljak said on Sunday the HNS would run independently in this year's parliamentary election, after which it would talk with those who would not bring Croatia back to ideological divisions and WWII.
He was responding to reporters' questions in Osijek about the situation in the coalition with the ruling HDZ and with whom the HNS would form a coalition after the next election given that "the SDP has renounced them and perhaps not even HNS voters have accepted the coalition with the HDZ."
Vrdoljak said the HNS ran in parliamentary elections in a coalition with the SDP (Social Democrats) in 2003 and 2007 and alone before that, just as it would now.
"After the election, we will talk with those who won't return us to ideological divisions, to history and World War Two, whose main policy won't be to hate someone and not recognise their freedom but who will pull Croatia forward."
Asked if the reference to going back was meant for the HDZ, Vrdoljak said it was meant "for everyone who gets involved in politics and whose main interest is that we should resemble some historical Croatia, which I don't think was all that glorious."
He said "we really don't need... people who will say that 'For the homeland ready' is a very polite and civilised greeting, and that the Ustasha movement had little anomalies but was nice. That's sick. I don't want that to be either discussed in Croatia anymore or be the guiding state policy."
Vrdoljak said the HNS decided to enter into a coalition with the HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union) to prevent a serious political crisis in Croatia, dozens of companies from going bankrupt and thousands of people from losing their jobs.
Asked if the coalition was strong, he said it was a much bigger challenge to enter the coalition than it would be to leave it. He believes they have performed as expected because, he said, a school reform has been launched after 30 years, employment and GDP have gone up, and the Agrokor conglomerate was saved from bankruptcy.
Vrdoljak was speaking to the press ahead of an election assembly of the HNS Osijek-Baranja County branch.
More HNS news can be found in the Politics section.
