ZAGREB, March 8, 2020 – Ivan Vrdoljak, the leader of the Croatian People’s Party (HNS), a junior partner in the ruling coalition, says in an interview for Hina that he will not run for the party president in the HNS election on 19 April and that in the event that Miro Kovac assumes the HDZ leadership, the HNS will leave the ruling majority.
Vrdoljak explained in the interview published on Sunday that he would leave the position of the party leader to enable ” a new future of the HNS” and that he would be politically active in the HNS branch in his hometown of Osijek.
He declined to specify whom he would prefer as his successor at the helm of the party. Currently there are two possible candidates: Milorad Batinić, who is the HNS parliamentary bench whip and Alen Leverić, a party official in Varaždin.
As for the decision of the HNS to join the government after the MOST party left the cabinet of Prime Minister and HDZ chief Andrej Plenković three years ago, and the comments that it adversely affected the HNS approval ratings, Vrdoljak says that there are two reasons why he can be satisfied with the coalition and the HNS performance in the government.
In this context he says that the government has seen to it that the education is now better than three years ago, referring to the reform conducted by Minister Blaženka Divjak, who had been nominated to that post by the HNS.
Another reason for Vrdoljak’s satisfaction is the performance of Construction Minister Predrag Štromar (HNS), since “20,000 families have been provided with their homes either through the state-subsidised mortgages or through the state-subsidised construction of the so-called POS flats.”
Vrdoljak admitted that forging the coalition with the HDZ in 2017 was “difficult, stressful and challenging but it had its purpose.”
He says that in the event that MP Miro Kovać wins the election for the HDZ president, the HNS will leave the coalition.
I think that it is more than clear that in the event of Kovać’s victory in the intra-party election, not only the HNS but many others will have no space for cooperation with the HDZ,” said Vrdoljak.
More HNS news can be found in the Politics section.
