ZAGREB, January 8, 2020 – Prime Minister and Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) leader Andrej Plenković said on Tuesday evening that the direction taken by the party had been supported “in unison” by the presidency and the national committee during their four-hour meeting in Zagreb at which they discussed the presidential runoff outcome.
In Sunday’s second round of the election, the incumbent president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, nominated by the ruling HDZ for her second term, was defeated by challenger Zoran Milanović, the candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and a few more opposition left parties.
“We must see the reasons for this result. We gave (her) a hundred percent support,” Plenković said after the meeting of the HDZ leadership.
Answering questions from the press, Plenković said that he did not feel his responsibility for Grabar-Kitarović’s defeat.
Plenković said that he had given her full support during her term as the head of state and since the start of the term of his cabinet.
He underscored that the president’s agenda for the second term was supported by the party and the HDZ backed her during the campaign in the run-up to the elections.
In the coming days, county branches of the HDZ are expected to make an analysis of the reasons for differences in Grabar-Kitarović’s approval ratings now and five years before when she ran for the presidency for the first time.
Plenković said that more meetings would be held in the coming days so as to see which moves to make.
As for the policy pursued by the current leadership of the HDZ, Plenković said that during the joint meeting of the presidency and the national committee, the direction taken by the party and moves on the political, economic, social and foreign affairs fronts had been unanimously supported.
Asked by the press about criticism made by parliamentarians Miro Kovač and Davor ivo Stier about the course taken by the party leadership, Plenković said that he did not know at this moment what Stier and Kovač thought and explained that they had not been at the meeting as they were not members either of the presidency or the national committee.
More HDZ news can be found in the Politics section.
