ZAGREB, August 6, 2019 – A delegation of the Croatian People’s Party (HNS) on Tuesday laid a wreath and lit candles at the grave of the party’s founder, Savka Dabčević-Kučar, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of her death, saying that Dabčević-Kučar had advocated values Croatia should promote.
“Savka Dabčević-Kučar is a person of great importance in Croatia’s history whose work and ideas helped build what Croatia is today and also what it should be and has possibly not become yet,” said Stjepan Čuraj, an HNS MP and member of the HNS Presidency.
Asked if the party’s having split into three parties was what Dabčević-Kučar would have wanted, Čuraj said that he did not consider it good either.
“A real member of the HNS cannot consider any divisions good, either in society or in political parties. Divisions bring no good, we should put our heads together and work for what is best for the country,” he said.
Asked about his party’s poor approval ratings, Čuraj said that since the HNS formed the government with the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in 2012, voter support for it had been around 3% but that in elections the party won a certain number of votes that proved those approval ratings wrong.
Asked to comment on claims that some of the HNS voters would never forgive the party its entering a coalition with the HDZ, Čuraj said that they were aware that it had been a difficult decision.
“It was not in the party’s interest because we were aware that it would cost us a drop in approval ratings. We did it in the interest of the country and citizens. At the time, it was the right thing to do,” he said.
He added that the government’s results justified the party’s decision and that the coming education reform would show that the HNS had contributed something to the country.
As for the party’s presidential candidate, Čuraj said that the HNS would announce in the autumn whether it would support one of the existing candidates or enter the presidential race with its own candidate.
More HNS news can be found in the Politics section.
