The President of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and Prime Minister, Jadranka Kosor, said after a meeting of the HDZ governing committee in Zagreb on Friday that they did not discuss intra-party or parliamentary elections, dismissing such reports as media speculations.
Kosor said that the governing committee and other party officials, or 763 HDZ members in all, gave full support to the government and the party's leadership in implementing three major projects -- the fight against corruption, economic recovery, and speedy completion of EU accession negotiations.
Kosor said that next week she would discuss with the coalition partners the completion of EU entry talks and the conditions in which the government was working. "We want to have an environment of stability and peace so we can do our job," she added.
Kosor said the government was not asking any party to support or assist it, but just not to frustrate its efforts. "That's the only condition for this hard work of closing the remaining negotiating chapters with the EU."
Responding to questions from the press, Kosor said that the meeting was not abruptly convened, but was planned for a while.
When asked to comment on the fact that both the opposition and the HDZ's coalition partners were agreed that parliamentary elections should be held in late autumn, Kosor said that she had repeated several times that parliamentary elections would be held by the end of the year. She added that the HDZ and its coalition partners would meet next week to discuss time frames and current developments.
