ZAGREB, June 5, 2019 – Živi Zid president Ivan Vilibor Sinčić said on Tuesday that MP Branimir Bunjac was suspended from the party for not sticking to its strategy prior to the recent European elections and an agreement than none of the party’s MPs would go to the European Parliament.
“That was the deal, that’s how the slate was compiled, that’s how the campaign was done,” Sinčić told reporters, adding that Bunjac “thwarted that deal” and that he “sees himself in the European Parliament.”
Sinčić said the idea had been to rotate five low-profile party members, but that since the deal was thwarted, they decided that Sinčić would go to the EP until the next parliamentary election in Croatia.
He explained that due to preferential voting, he could not leave his seat in the EP to the Tihomir Lukanić, and that Bunjac did not want to leave his seat to Lukanić.
Lukanić was the lead candidate on the Živi Zid slate for the EP elections. Sinčić, although last, won the most preferential votes, followed by Bunjac. After the elections, in which the party won one seat in the EP, Sinčić said Lukanić was his choice for going to Brussels.
“I didn’t expect Branimir Bunjac to act like this and once again call on him to act honourably, to respect the pre-election agreement and enable me to leave my seat to Lukanic,” said Sinčić.
He said he did not wish to go to the EP, that everyone expected the seat to go to Lukanić and that he would do his best to make it happen, but that Bunjac was “the only obstacle.”
Sinčić said the heads of the party’s county branches unanimously decided that Bunjac must honour the agreement and leave the seat to Lukanić.
Bunjac’s fate, ranging from a warning to ousting, will be decided by the party’s disciplinary commission. His suspension is effective June 5. “There’s no split in the party. This is simply about a man who is acting dishonourably against the whole party,” said Sinčić.
Lukanić, who recently resigned as the party’s secretary-general, will now be its political secretary.
More news about Živi Zid can be found in the Politics section.
