ZAGREB, March 31, 2019 – Opposition Social Democratic Party (SDP) leader Davor Bernardić said on Saturday that Croatia could not be free or progressive without a strong social democracy and a strong SDP, recalling that his party had led Croatia into the EU and that now it should lead a fight to ensure equality for Croatia in the EU.
Addressing a convention of the SDP branch in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County in Čavle, Bernardić presented candidates on the SDP’s slate for elections for the European Parliament, including former minister of the interior Ranko Ostojić, former SDP member and environmental protection minister Mirela Holy, member of parliament Gordan Maras, former deputy foreign minister Joško Klisović, former war veterans minister Predrag Matić, and members of the European Parliament Biljana Borzan and Tonino Picula.
Bernardić said that the number of male and female candidates on the slate was the same.
The head of the SDP county branch, Zlatko Komadina, said that the SDP still carried the banner of free thinking in Croatia.
If our government puts an equal sign between Jasenovac and Bleiburg, it is only natural that Austrians have to enlighten us, said Komadina in reference to a recent decision by the Gurk-Klagenfurt Diocese in Austria to deny permission for this year’s Mass in the Loibach field as part of a ceremony commemorating members of Nazi-allied Croatian forces killed there at the end of World War II.
Answering reporters’ questions, he said that the EU had slid into neo-liberal capitalism, that 18 EU countries used to have Social Democrat governments while today there were only eight such governments, and that only Social Democrats could reverse current neo-fascist and extremely conservative trends.
Commenting on the current situation in the shipbuilding sector, Komadina said that the shipyards had not been managed well and that no government had controlled how state guarantees for ships were spent. He called for a solution to the current situation in the ailing Uljanik shipbuilding group that would enable its takeover by another legal person.
MEP Tonino Picula said, among other things, that the government’s response to the crisis in Uljanik was not as proactive as had been the case during the crisis in the Agrokor food and retail group, when, he said, the government reacted promptly to prevent its negative impact on the economy.
More news on the European elections can be found in the Politics section.
