Completing Croatia's accession negotiations with the European Union, with maximum support from the Alliance for Change coalition, and holding parliamentary elections as soon as possible, before a referendum on Croatia's EU entry, were the two main positions which the leaders of the opposition SDP, HNS, HSU and IDS parties put forward during Friday's talks with President Ivo Josipovic.
"As the president said on Monday, and as we did a number of times, it is in the best national interest to separate the parliamentary elections from the referendum and to hold them before the referendum, as soon as possible, so that the referendum is not jeopardised and turned into a vote on the government, which no longer has any support," Social Democratic Party (SDP) leader Zoran Milanovic said after the coalition's one-hour talks with the president.
Milanovic said the ball was now in the government's court, adding the government had formal, but not public, legitimacy and support.
He said the Alliance for Change coalition absolutely supported completing the EU entry talks by the end of June, if possible.
"We will do our best for that to happen, even though the process has lasted so long and we know who is responsible for it," Milanovic said, hailing today's consultations with Josipovic.
"I applaud such consultations. Had the prime minister come to parliament, perhaps they wouldn't have been necessary, but this is a precedent and the president evidently had to (convene the consultations)," he said.
Josipovic's talks with the leaders of the SDP, the HNS, the HSU, and the IDS were followed by talks with Kosor, who is also the president of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party. The PM was accompanied by Foreign Minister Gordan Jandrokovic, Agriculture Minister Petar Cobankovic, Economy Minister Djuro Popijac, and EU accession chief negotiator Vladimir Drobnjak.
