ZAGREB, September 15, 2018 – The non-parliamentary Autochthonous Croatian Party of Rights (A-HSP) held a protest on Saturday outside the offices of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) in downtown Zagreb, demanding that elections to be called under a new election law and that the HDZ terminate its coalition with the Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS).
A-HSP leader Dražen Keleminec said that Croatia’s government was protecting murderers from Ovčara (a former farm outside Vukovar and the site of a 1991 war crime), mentioning in that context Đorđe Ćurčić, deputy head of Vukovar-Srijem County.
He called on Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and SDSS president Milorad Pupovac to reveal the location of a second mass grave at Ovčara, claiming that the government knew where the mass grave was but was hiding it.
A minority, led by Pupovac and SDSS Main Assembly president Vojislav Stanimirović, is running the country, said Keleminec. They insult Croatia while their coalition partner the HDZ is rewarding them, he said.
The HDZ is aware that after the next election it will no longer have any manoeuvring space because the Croatian People’s Party (HNS) will not pass the election threshold and it is therefore planning a coalition with the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in order to stay in power, said Keleminec. “The HDZ and the SDP have plundered and destroyed Croatia and must disappear from the political scene so that the country can prosper,” Keleminec said at the rally that was attended by about 20 protesters and as many police.
The protesters carried Croatian flags without historical regional coats-of-arms and a flag of the Croatian Defence Forces (HOS), the armed wing of the Croatian Party of Rights (HSP) in the 1991-95 Homeland War.
