The Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) Leader Andrej Plenkovic addressed the participants of the party Convention who filled the Zagreb’s Cibona saying that the HDZ was always more than a party, because it has shown it was the largest and strongest political force in the past 30 years, and it will continue to be that way in the future.
“We are here to respond to all those who are trying to realize their political interests through attempts to destabilize the Government, the State institutions and the HDZ itself because the general good of this country is not in their interest,” Plenkovic said. “Today’s convention is important because of the adoption of a new and modern party statute, and because of the confirmation that the HDZ and the Government will work hard on structural reforms, economic growth, employment growth and wage growth, always defending Croatian national interests, and I guarantee that we will achieve this because – who else will implement the reforms and take Croatia forward if not the HDZ.”
He recalled everything that the HDZ had to face during this term: the Agrokor affair, the fires, floods, etc.
“Despite all of this, we maintained stability without a new election,” he added.
He compared the results of his government with the previous, SDP’s government and stressed that last year Croatia made more money than it spent.
“The SDP has reached a deficit of HRK 11.7 billion (around, EUR 1.58 billion) they have opted for the borrowing policy, while the public debt has reached 85 percent during their mandate. We have reduced the debt to 78 percent of the GDP and we are twice as fast in debt reduction than other EU states,” Plenkovic stressed.
Much of the speech was devoted to the issue of Agrokor, but he touched upon the Hotmail affair as well:
“During the Agrokor’s rescue process for which we haven’t had enough time, certain mistakes were made which we regret, but those mistakes were not strategic and I will not allow everything that we have done so far to be overshadowed by these mistakes,” Plenkovic concluded.
