ZAGREB, February 8, 2020 – President-elect Zoran Milanović on Saturday attended a session of the SDP Main Committee to say goodbye to his soon-to-be former party colleagues, saying that “if the truth were the only election criterion, the SDP would be in power forever.”
“Even when we slip, we speak with the best intentions, and it has been so for 30 years. We had governments and people didn’t leave those governments nor were they expelled because of corruption scandals, dishonesty, betrayal of the public trust, practically ever. I’d say the choice is simple: the truth, vote for Croatia’s left wing, you’re on the right track,” Milanović said in a closed-door speech which Hina obtained unofficially.
However, that is not so and when you prepare for the parliamentary election, which you have already started to do, keep that in mind, he told the Social Democratic Party members. People vote first and foremost according to their wishes, he added.
“Fight for the truth, and the guarantor of the truth in democracy are three institutions: an independent academia in the broad sense, notably in natural sciences, freed and independent media, and civil society. There’s no democracy without that.”
Thanking the SDP members for helping him win the presidential election, Milanović said he won “only 100,000 more votes than his opponent, the incumbent president.”
In democracy, that is sometimes the fate of the truth. This time it was a good fate, we are successful, we won, we were given the chance to set the rhythm, dynamic and pulse of society and I to do so over the next five years within the limited presidential powers, Milanovic said.
“Over the next five years all those who fight for the truth, for justice, which is a somewhat less tangible phenomenon and notion, will have my support. To fight for those who are weaker is our mission. We are not the Church, we are Social Democrats and we do that by civil means, and that job is full of substance and sense.”
Milanović was the presidential candidate of 13 left-liberal parties led by the SDP.
According to unofficial reports, he will leave the party, which he must do under the law, on Monday.
More news about Zoran Milanović can be found in the Politics section.
