ZAGREB, May 26, 2018 – HDZ held its convention on Saturday in Zagreb and the party adopted the new statute. During debate, several prominent party members issued thinly veiled criticism of party leadership, primarily party president and prime minister Andrej Plenković. They were often interrupted with loud applause.
The event ended with another speech by Plenković, who said that his Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party was a victorious party that had successfully responded to all challenges in the last two years and found solutions to the biggest economic and financial problems which the party had inherited.
“We have resolved all those issues in a way that is good for the party and for Croatia. We have also made certain choices about key political issues that we put on the agenda because we know which way Croatia should go,” the HDZ leader said. “Croatia must go forward and not backward, and I want all the members of the HDZ to understand this as the key message for the direction in which the party is going and activities it is undertaking,” he added.
Plenković said that the HDZ is a party in which its members can speak, express their views and criticise freely. “But those who criticise must know that they had their chances and opportunities, they could have been members of the government or could have stayed in the government and make their contribution.” This was Plenković’s reaction to the criticism heard during the debate.
Plenković also said that the convention was excellent. “We have received support for the government’s activities, for cooperation with our partners in the parliamentary majority on policies that position Croatia as a member of the most developed organisations in the world, including the Council of Europe, the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. We will strengthen our position, anchor ourselves, foster our specific characteristics, take account of our identity, tradition, Christian democracy, patriotism and nation-building,” he said, adding that only countries that adjust to these trends and parties that recognise these trends get a chance to lead.
