ZAGREB, February 15, 2020 – Social Democratic Party (SDP) president Davor Bernardić said on Saturday there was big potential for cooperation with the Istrian Democratic Party (IDS) in the next parliamentary election, adding that the SDP would “lead the winning coalition.”
“There is potential for cooperation with the IDS because we cooperated well in the past. But we are talking with all parties with which we share the same world view, and what is certain is that the SDP will lead the winning coalition which will bring much needed change in our country,” Bernardić said in Pazin, where he attended a ceremony marking the 30th anniversary of the IDS.
He added that the SDP was already talking with parties with which it shared the values of freedom, solidarity, anti-fascism and anti-corruption. “We will strongly insist on our programme to fight corruption and for judicial reform.”
IDS president Boris Miletić said the successes of Istria County and the IDS surpassed the party and that they reflected the spirit of the local people. He said the IDS was a regional “avant-garde (party) different from others.”
“We secured bilingualism, talked about a faraway Europe and advocated the then unpopular notions of anti-fascism, coexistence, multi-ethnicity and multi-culturalism,” he said, adding that the IDS was alone in fighting for those values in the 1990s, yet now they are part of Croatia’s legislation.
The ceremony was attended, among others, by President-elect Zoran Milanović, the leaders of the parties the IDS cooperates with as part of the Amsterdam Coalition, and Dutch MEP Hans van Baalen, president of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe to which the IDS belongs.
More SDP news can be found in the Politics section.
