The Croatian Peasant Party (HSS) will run in the forthcoming parliamentary election on its own, HSS leader Josip Friscic announced at a press conference in Martinska Ves on Saturday.
Friscic said that the HSS was working on its platform and that it had appointed members who would be heading slates of candidates in individual constituencies. "Discussions, which have lasted for weeks, have confirmed that the HSS has things to offer to the electorate and that it can run independently."
"Our priority will be caring for food, for the processing industry and for tourism, and creating conditions for exporting our products abroad," Friscic said.
When asked to comment on assessments by some analysts that the HSS, if running independently, would not cross the election threshold, Friscic recalled that analysts had also claimed that the HSS's mission would be over once Croatia became an independent state.
Friscic was in Martinska Ves, in Sisak-Moslavina County, to attend an exhibition of horses. Later in the day, he and his party colleague Marijana Petir were scheduled to attend a ceremony in the nearby village of Trebarjevo Desno commemorating the 143rd anniversary of the birth of Antun Radic and the 140th anniversary of the birth of his brother, Stjepan Radic, the founders of the HSS.
