ZAGREB, May 28, 2020 – Prime Minister and HDZ party leader Andrej Plenkovic said on Thursday that he would run in the July 5 parliamentary election as a candidate in Constituency No. 1 and that he believed his party would win the same number of seats as in the 2016 election.
Constituency No. 1 covers the northwestern part of Zagreb County and parts of central and west Zagreb.
“Consultations are underway, the number of candidates is much bigger than the number of places on slates. We have been in talks with county leaders and our partners, some of whom will be on our slates,” Plenkovic told the HTV public broadcaster.
He said that in mid-June, once the consultations were completed, party slates would be made public and the party platform would be finished, dismissing speculation that he would run in Constituency No. 10 which covers the southern part of Split-Dalmatia County as well as Dubrovnik-Neretva County.
Plenkovic said he expected the HDZ to repeat its success in the 2016 election when it won 61 seats in the 151-seat parliament, this time “showing its achievements and clear solutions for Croatia’s future.”
He also said that he was glad Statehood Day would again be observed on May 30 and that the parliament had decided to accept the government’s proposal that the holiday again be observed on that date instead of on 25 June, designated as Statehood Day by the Ivica Racan government 20 years ago.
Plenkovic believes that the Croatian people had never really accepted June 25 as Statehood Day, noting that May 30 was the day when the first democratic multiparty parliament was inaugurated and which in the 1990s meant a lot to everyone.
“We now want, ahead of the 30th anniversary of the parliament’s inauguration after the first democratic elections, to restore the positive atmosphere and identification of the nation with the symbols of the state and its key dates,” he said.
Plenkovic said he did not agree with how President Zoran Milanovic saw Statehood Day.
“One should identify with what that date means to the Croatian people, and May 30 means a lot, it is not just a holiday of one political party but of the entire Croatian people,” he said.
