ZAGREB, January 26, 2018 – Social Democratic Party (SDP) president and the presumptive leader of the opposition Davor Bernardić said on Friday that delegates to the party’s reporting convention, set for mid-February, would not be able to remove him from the presidency and added that he was not considering the idea of stepping down.
“The SDP leader is elected by all members of the party and not at a convention,” Bernardić said, adding that latest rumours about his ouster at the reporting convention is actually yet another attempt to destabilise the SDP after it improved its ratings by two percent according to the latest opinion poll.
On Thursday, some of the senior SDP officials commented on tensions in that party, fuelled by its low ratings and Bernardić’s unusual campaign for freedom of speech and satire, with party whip Arsen Bauk saying that it was theoretically possible that the party’s forthcoming reporting convention could turn into an election convention.
“Judging by what we can see in the media, it would be very brave to say that it won’t happen. I am brave, but I’m not brave enough to predict it. So, theoretically it could happen, but it is also possible that it won’t happen,” Bauk said on Thursday.
However, Bernardić offered a counter-argument insisting that the SDP leader is elected by the one-member, one-vote method.
Asked by reporters why the SDP was not tackling more serious issues instead of indulging in satire, Bernardić replied that if those who asked such questions had not noticed that the party had recently launched an intense campaign for the youth.
Bernardić went on to say that freedoms “are the highest civilisation achievement.” “When you cannot say freely and express your ideas, then nothing can be changed in society. Freedom above all,” he said.
