Jadranka Kosor, leader of the biggest opposition party, the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), on Friday officially announced her candidacy for party president, who is to be elected at the HDZ's general convention on May 20, while her party colleague Andrej Plenkovic officially announced his candidacy for vice-president.
Addressing a news conference together with Plenkovic, Kosor said that Plenkovic, a member of Parliament and observer in the European Parliament, had been a member of the HDZ for a relatively short period of time, but that he joined the party in a very difficult period for the HDZ, thus showing his commitment to its platform, and that he had given a significant contribution to the party's work.
Plenkovic said that Kosor had earned his respect for having the strength, despite pressures, to bring Croatia's EU accession talks to completion, launch the fight against corruption, and make democratic processes in the party more dynamic.
He said that in the future the HDZ should be a strong opposition party with well-articulated positions, making proposals that would contribute to building a competitive and socially sensitive Croatia, a just and European country with evenly developed regions.
Asked to comment on ten city and municipal HDZ leaders having supported Tomislav Karamarko, one of her rivals in the race for HDZ president, Kosor said that leaders of local HDZ branches would not be the ones to decide on the party leadership and that it would be done by 2,200 delegates at the HDZ convention.
"We must make it possible for the delegates to attend the convention free of any pressure, blackmail and false promises and to make a decision in a secret vote," she said, expressing regret that some party branches were being pressured into voting "this or that way."
Asked if she had known that in 2000 charges had been pressed against Bruno Oresar, owner of the Jadrankamen stone and marble producer, and that the Office of the Chief State Prosecutor had not acted on them, Kosor said the question should be put to Chief State Prosecutor Mladen Bajic.
Asked to comment on a police intervention against disgruntled Jadrankamen workers on Brac island on Thursday, which was made possible by the Police Act adopted in 2009 during the term of her government, Kosor said that former Minister of the Interior Karamarko should be asked about the Police Act. "It's interesting that he was not in Parliament yesterday, when a report on the work of the ministry during his term in office was discussed."
