Why Am I the Evil Witch to HDZ?

HDZ circles tell me the HDZ leadership is very angry that I am attacking them, they say it is personal vengeance because I was dismissed.

They tell me I am leading a personal war against Sanader. They said that, had I remained in the government, I would not act this way. They say that if I continued this way, they will “level me to the ground”, they tell me they will set me up with criminal offences, they say they will publish some photographs, etc.

I am not angry for being dismissed

Since they tell me all this, I should respond finally. I say I am not angry for being dismissed because I have nothing to be angry about, nobody lasts forever in office, everybody comes and goes. I was in power twice in my political life and twice in the opposition. I believe that it is good to be both for the mental balance of a politician.

True, I admit that the way I was dismissed was not pleasant, the dismissal over the telephone and wiping the floor with me in the media indicate a low level of political culture of our premier, although I thought it was high and European. But, that passed.

Why am I now an evil witch? 

Why am I now an evil witch? I ask uncomfortable questions, open cans of worms, I see what others do not, I suggest, as Seks says, laws that are “interesting, but unacceptable”. I suppose I should have gone into the opposition, cover my ears, sit sadly, raise my hand in parliament and wave to everybody who transferred to the HDZ?

Ever since I have not been in coalition with the HDZ and ever since the HDZ lifted all problematic members, it has been great in the DC. New people arrived, young people not impressed by the HDZ. I am satisfied. Today I am a one-member party, but after parliamentary elections, there will be many more. People appreciate work. And I work in politics with the DC. We do not calculate or trade and even less give up.

Why did not Racan send threatening messages?

When I am in power, I work for a result that can be seen by the citizens and, thank God, I have results. When I am in opposition, I work as a corrective to the government. I ask uncomfortable questions and seek answers. That is the job of the opposition. I was also opposition to Racan. I did not spare him any more than I spare Sanader now. Maybe he was angry, but did not show it. I did by job as opposition and he did his job as government. So, where is the problem now? He did not send me such threatening messages.

Now the problem is that I attack Sanader. I do not attack him, but his actions. I see them and state them publicly. As the mandate draws to an end, they are worse. While I was with him in power, I would tell him face to face what I disagreed with and did not speak about it in public. Now I am the opposition and I state them clearly.

‘Levelling to the ground’ 

What is personal in the question why the Brodosplit investigation is lasting so long? Instead of answering me, the premier gets angry and answers that I was minister and should have cared about Brodosplit then. He forgets that I have not been a minister for a year and that there was no Brodosplit case in my time.

When I ask him why he went to an opera in Verona on Statehood Day instead of Vukovar, he sends me a message through a mediator that he will “level me to the ground”.

When I say that I am glad that my premier has quality watches on his hand because that is so cool, bit I ask him why he did not report them in his property card, there arrives, through the newspapers, of course, a ridiculous thesis on false residence, then the question whether I am building a house in Samobor, they ask whether my children are my husband’s children…

Now I am wondering should I shut up and continue doing my job of the opposition. So, I ask of the HDZ and Premier Sanader not to be angry. I am the Democratic Centre, the opposition, I ask questions, I offer my solutions, I open issues and no threats will deter me from that because, with my party, small but courageous, I am constructing something different from what exists on the political scene today.

And my goal is to make my party as large as HDZ is now. Only, the difference in conduct and politics will be altered and better.

Vesna Skare-Ozbolt, DC