President: Parties Should Publish Their Programmes

Mesic said that he would like that the parties published programmes which they will actually fulfill, and not just electoral promises.

Today in Orahovica, Croatian President Stjepan Mesic said that he would like that election campaign was affirmative.

“I would like that the parties published their programmes, teams and people who will fulfill these programmes. I think that this would be more advantageous for Croatia rather than clearly going for a negative campaign. I agree that what is not good has to be condemned, condemn corruption, we have to pursue the functioning of the state mechanisms, but I think that citizens will recognize very well which programmes can be fulfilled and which ones are just electoral promises”, Mesic told jurnalists.

The president today looked back at the possibility of a coalition between HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union) and SDP (Social Democratic Party), saying that the time in which a party could put a government together has passed.

Considering that, as he said, it is hard to believe that SDP and HDZ will sign a coalition, inviting HSS (Croatian Peasants Party) and HSLS (Croatian Social Liberal Party) to come together. He said that HNS (Croatian People’s Party) is also there, and that it will strengthen smaller parties until the end of the campaign, in order to, next to minority and regional parties, sign a coalition with one or the other party, and that he will give the mandate to the one with more mandates in Parliament.

President Stjepan Mesic, during his visit in Orahovica, had a meeting with the city council currently working on the renovation, organization and return of the NOB (Yugoslav People Liberation War) monument. He repeated his point that Croatia was built on strong antifascism and NOB fundamentals, that the initiatives which go towards the preservation of these traditions are welcomed and that he offers them full support.

After Orahovica, the president visited Nasice where members of the Nasice HNS, lead by former MP Antun Krapraljevic, handed him a petition signed a by the citizens for the returning of barracks to the town. As Krapraljevic and the president of the Nasice HNS Zeljko Horvat stressed on this occasion, the petition was signed by 30% of the citizens of Nasice, who demand its conversion into a nursing home, a school or an establishment for sports and commercial purpose.

President Mesic supported this initiative saying that the biggest part of army objects was sold to the local government so that they would not sell them, but concede or rent them.

After the meeting with the army, he added, he will be able to tell specifically when the Nasic barracks will be returned to the citizens, and he said that he will dispose of this information in a few days.