ZAGREB, December 31, 2018 – Parliament Speaker and Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) secretary-general Gordan Jandroković said on Monday that currently nothing hinted at a possible government reshuffle and underscored that the scandal dubbed text messages had nothing to do with the ruling HDZ party.
Considering the text messages affair, individuals worked outside the system and used the methods of work which can be considered inappropriate and perhaps contrary to law, Jandroković told the reporters who covered his New Year Eve walk through the centre of Zagreb. Jandroković said that the current leadership had nothing to do with that scandal.
Asked by the press what was about HDZ deputy president Milijan Brkić and his alleged connections with the suspects in the scandal, Jandroković said that he “is speaking about the people who now run the HDZ. All who are possibly implicated will have to be held to account.” Jandroković declined to specify the names of those possibly implicated in the scandal.
As for the HDZ, he said that the party would prepare for the European Parliament elections, set for mid-May 2019.
Regarding the HDZ’s position on the support to the incumbent president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović for her second term, Jandroković reiterated that he expected Grabar-Kitarović to first say whether she decided to rerun for the presidency. “If she decides so, the HDZ will support her.”
He also admitted that there was no hurry for Grabar-Kitarović to outline her plans given that “no serious counter-candidate” has yet appeared.
Jandroković rejected media interpretations that the president replaced her advisers after caving in under the pressure from the HDZ leadership.
Commenting on the reporters’ observations on fence-mending between President Grabar-Kitarović and Prime Minister and HDZ leader Andrej Plenković, Jandoković said that “the time has shown who were those people who stood behind occasional straining of the relations along the lines of the president and the government or the HDZ.”
I expect cooperation and exchange of information as well as fixing of what ought to be fixed in the coming period, Jandroković said.
More news on the HDZ can be found in our Politics section.
