"The conflict between prominent HDZ members will not cause any radical changes. People were irritated by the fact that they were being insulted and it seemed to them that the Parliament Speaker failed to respond," Kosor said in an interview on Croatian Radio when asked to comment on last week's argument between Parliament Speaker Luka Bebic and Deputy Speakers Vladimir Seks and Ivan Jarnjak and to say if she would replace Bebic over the incident.

She said that the HDZ leadership would discuss the case and inform the Parliament's Presidency of its decision. The party leadership expects the parliamentary leadership to define the limits for tolerating "the language of contempt, hate and insult, what each of us cannot tolerate or tolerates poorly."

She added that she was not speaking of any specific member of parliament, but noted that since parliament sessions were televised live, one should find a way not to cause unrest, bitterness or contempt towards politicians.

She mentioned in that context a deputy of the HDSSB party, Dinko Buric, who gave Deputy Parliament Speaker Seks a referral slip for psychiatric treatment, adding that by doing so, Buric had insulted and humiliated all psychiatric patients and the medical profession.

Asked if she expected Minister of the Interior Tomislav Karamarko to join the HDZ, she said that everyone with "healthy political ambitions" was welcome in the HDZ, stressing that she had not discussed the matter with Karamarko with whom she said she had excellent cooperation.

As for media reports that the HDZ has offered Karamarko the post of party vice-president, she said that candidacies for all party functions had to be confirmed by the HDZ general assembly.

She also dismissed claims that by launching an investigation into Communist crimes in the election year, the Ministry of the Interior was supporting the HDZ's electoral policy, saying that the police's only task was to investigate crimes and discover who had committed them, regardless of who the perpetrators might be.

"This is not about attacking anti-fascism, which is built into the foundations of the Croatian Constitution and of which we are proud. This is about Communist crimes," she said.

"It (the investigation) can help close some chapters in our history for good, so that we are no longer burdened by what happened yesterday or the day before yesterday, while paying too little attention to what is happening today."