Prime Minister and leader of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) Andrej Plenkovic on Thursday said that the party's presidency would launch disciplinary proceedings against presidency member Darko Milinovic due to the "gravest breaches of membership obligations and causing political damage to the party".
Milinovic, who is running for head of the party’s Lika-Senj County branch, arrived in Zagreb on Wednesday, along with some 200 party members from the County, demanding to meet with presidency members.
Commissioner of the Gospic municipality HDZ branch Ivica Radosevic said this Tuesday that the election for the leader and deputies of the Gospic HDZ branch, which was to be held on September 2, was postponed.
Milinovic said yesterday that he and his 200 supporters would stay in the HDZ headquarters in Zagreb as long as it took until they were told when the election would be held.
The meeting with presidency members did not take place, but they finally received a guarantee around 10 pm from Darko Nekic, state secretary in the Ministry for Public Administration, that the election for County branch leadership would take place on September 9, Milinovic told reporters last night.
Late last night after Milinovic spoke to the reporters, a source from the HDZ told the state news agency Hina that no guarantees needed to be given, since the September 9 election for County leadership had been scheduled earlier, adding that Milinovic was “manipulating and attempting to spin his defeat into victory.”
“By emphasising his supposed triumph because he was guaranteed that the election for Lika-Senj County HDZ leader would be held when it was supposed to be held anyway, he confirms this was a show only for his own benefit, and not an attempt to ensure success at the Gospic branch election or protect his members,” the source said.
“We believe that with his performance yesterday, Darko Milinovic has caused political damage to the HDZ,” Plenkovic told reporters on Thursday after a meeting of the party’s inner presidency.
“I, as the party’s leader, and other members of the inner presidency, will not allow any mass demonstrations, or the party to be, figuratively speaking, turned into a circus. We consider that to be very bad and unnecessary because all issues that were on the agenda he could have, and should have, resolved with the commission in charge of organising elections,” Plenkovic said.
“That is why we have decided that the HDZ presidency will launch disciplinary proceedings against Milinovic for the gravest breach of membership obligations and causing political damage to the HDZ,” he added.
The election for the HDZ leadership of the Lika-Senj County and the city of Gospic, the County capital, triggered open conflicts between the party leadership and the local branch led by Milinovic, Vecernji List daily reported on Monday.
Milinovic, who stepped down as leader of the county HDZ in January this year in protest after the party did not appoint his choice as head of the Plitvice National Park, after which the entire county HDZ branch was dissolved, ran uncontested for another term until last week, when HDZ MP Marijan Kustic announced his candidacy.
Vecernji List reported that the HDZ leadership openly supported Kustic’s bid, which caused anger among Milinovic’s supporters, who claimed that the party leadership was violating the statute by favouring one candidate over another.
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