ZAGREB, February 9, 2020 – Social Democrat leader Davor Bernardić said on Saturday that in the next elections voters would be able to choose between “the SDP’s vision of a progressive Croatia” and a conservative vision of individual interest groups from the current government.
As for speculations about a grand coalition, Bernardić told the main committee of this leading Opposition party that the SDP would accept only the formation of a grand coalition with Croatian citizens.
“The elections are ahead of us. One should decide about what kind of Croatia we want,” he said.
Bernardić went on to say that the Croatian citizens “are faced with the clearest political choice so far: between our vision of a progressive and well-arranged Croatia in which citizens and institutions work together in efforts to address the biggest development challenges and an unruly, conservative Croatia in which the future of the state and its citizens lies in the hands of individual interests of the ruling party,” alluding to the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ).
In the year ahead of us we must show to citizens that we are able again to take responsibility for running the country, the SDP leader said.
It is important for the SDP to offer solutions for the essential problems of citizens and we have assumed a general attitude: a rise in the living standards, which includes higher salaries and pensions, a more equitable society, which means the fight against corruption and the reform of the judiciary, he said accusing the current government of deepening social inequalities and “maintaining the economic system that does not yield results to the benefit of individuals.”
The SDP will take three pillars for its election agenda: a sustainable and inclusive economy, fair and sympathetic society and efficient and accessible state institutions, he announced, calling for both economic and societal recovery.
“We are going to create preconditions for the introduction of the euro in Croatia. We will not wait, we will make decisions, we will not postpone necessary changes as we could see in the last four years,” Bernardić said.
During the session of the SDP Main Committee, Croatia’s President-elect Zoran Milanović, who used to be at the helm of the SDP for ten years before Bernardić, thanked the party for its support during the recent campaign. Milanović’s address was held behind the closed doors.
On Monday, Milanović will relinquish his membership of SDP in line with the Croatian legislation that requires that heads of state are not members of any political party.
More SDP news can be found in the Politics section.
