The Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) president Tomislav Karamarko on Sunday criticised the ruling coalition for lacking sensitivity towards workers and their problems.
"I cannot see how this (ruling) coalition is left, now when it is depriving workers of their jobs and stripping them of their rights," Karamarko told a news conference in Zagreb at which he expressed support to plans of trade union federations to stage a large-scale protest rally in the capital on Wednesday, May Day.
"It's time to say 'Enough is enough'. I am not saying this in my capacity of the leader of an opposition party but like all other common-sensical people who have come to the conclusion that the situation has become unbearable," Karamarko said, expressing his best wishes to workers on the forthcoming Labour day, celebrated on 1 May.
In response to questions from the press about the controversial posters of the HDZ-led coalition in the town of Sisak, which have been considered also as an act of hate speech and aimed at deepening ideological divisions, Karamarko said he was dissatisfied with the esthetic aspect of those posers.
Posters, which the HDZ-led coalition including the the Croatian Party of Rights 'Dr. Ante Starcevic', Croatian Peasant Party (HSS) and a few more parties set up on advertisement structures in Sisak, show a blood-stained male hand holding the five-point star containing another Communist-era symbols -- traditional style hammer and sickle - and, in parallel, a white, clean female hand with a crucifix on its palm. The posters, which the coalition prepared for its campaigning ahead of the 19 May local elections, also has the slogan: "A simple choice today for a secure tomorrow".
"I said that the message (of those posters) is correct. It is the message which should be sent out. The HDZ revives Democratic-Christian values. Let us leave this fake socialism with which we certainly cannot enter Europe. However, I am not satisfied with the esthetic features of those posters. They might have been wittier, more original and more acceptable," the HDZ chief said.
He added that HDZ branches had free hands to decide on their own on how they would would run campaigns.
The controversial posters were the reason why one of members of that local coalition, -- the Green Action --, decided to depart from that group of parties.
