After losing the post of First Deputy Prime Minister, Tomislav Karamarko could soon be history as far his party is concerned as well.
A group of HDZ founders demanded today that Tomislav Karamarko should step down from all his posts in the party in order to launch a process of electing a new party leadership, which will carry out necessary reforms and prepare the party for a victory in the upcoming early parliamentary elections, reports Index.hr on June 18, 2016.
Nine founders of HDZ said in the statement that Karamarko’s HDZ strayed in many respects away from what HDZ as it was conceived by the first party president Franjo Tuđman, and that thanks to such mistaken policies HDZ did not achieve victory at last year’s parliamentary elections. They also claim that the government from the beginning was in constant conflict with Karamarko, due to his dissatisfaction with his personal position and the role in the government, and that this was what led to its collapse.
“For all these reasons, Tomislav Karamarko should immediately and unconditionally step down from all his duties in HDZ, and thus initiatite an open selection procedure for the new leadership of the party”, said the statement signed by Ivan Tolj, Zdenka Babić Petričević, Neven Jurica, Jure Ivančić, Zdravko Gavran, Božidar Petrač, Mario Kapulica, Ante Kutle and Miro Petrić.
They point out that as members of HDZ from the very beginning they entered the political struggle for the implementation of national interests of the Croatian people. They also added that they had given this statement with a sense of moral responsibility at a time when HDZ leadership brought down its own government together with SDP.
This is probably just the first in a series of calls for Karamarko’s resignation, which will only intensify now that it is becoming quite obvious that HDZ will not be able to form a new government and that early parliamentary elections will take place in early September, where HDZ’s chances to remain in power do not appear to be particularly good.
Interestingly, when HDZ president Ivo Sanader resigned from his post in 2009, he was soon after kicked out of the party by his successor and close associate Jadranka Kosor. When Kosor lost elections in 2011, she was kicked out of the party by her successor and close associate Tomislav Karamarko, whom she had even brought into the party membership. The question is not whether Karamarko will meet the same fate, but when it will happen.
