ZAGREB, March 17, 2020 - The Presidency and the National Council of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) on Monday decided to replace Milijan Brkić as Parliament Deputy Speaker and Miro Kovač as the Chairman of the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee.
The decision was adopted with a consensus to replace Brkić and nominate Ante Sanader to fill his position and to later agree on the nomination of the person who is going to replace Miro Kovač, HDZ president Andrej Plenković said after the session of the HDZ Presidency and the National Council, the first one after Sunday's intraparty election
Plenković, who was re-elected president, answered in the negative when asked if this was an act of relation against "the losers", saying that the proposed measures were in accordance with the new party organisations and the new leadership.
Plenković won the 79% of the vote for the presidential position, and the election was organised in HDZ branches throughout the country and abroad in line with the one member-one vote principle.
His counter candidate Miro Kovac won 21% of the vote. The party's former deputy president, Brkić, who ran for a vice presidential position, was not elected.
Plenković also commented on the guidelines the European Commission published on Monday for member-countries with principles of integrated and efficient border management in the context of the coronavirus pandemic to protect human health and ensure the functioning of the single market. The guidelines will be presented at the government session on Tuesday.
"The Commission is trying to take measures that would prevent the spreading of the epidemics outside the EU members states, some countries are closing borders inside and what we must do is make a joint European response, while taking into account specific characteristics of each country," Plenković said.
More HDZ news can be found in the Politics section.