The Presidency and parliamentary group of the opposition Social Democratic Party (SDP) met on Monday but failed to agree on how to resolve the crisis the party is in, with party chief Davor Bernardic saying he has no intention to resign and that big business and import lobbies were trying to take him down.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, which lasted for over 4 hours, Bernardic said the party’s policy could not be run by the street and that everything should be discussed by the party bodies.

Last Friday, an informal group of 81 SDP members called on Bernardic to step down effective immediately over “his disastrous leadership”, saying he was responsible for a major decline in the party ratings. The call came after the party had suspended four of its senior members – Sinisa Hajdas-Doncic, Pedja Grbin, Mihael Zmajlovic, and Vedran Babic – for openly criticising party leadership. As a result, the four lost their right to perform their party duties or exercise rights as members.

Bernardic said on Monday he proposed a compromise to his opponents in the party – that he would not chair the parliamentary group, and instead, the Presidency would choose a candidate acceptable to all. He added that his job as leader was to protect the SDP statute and democratic procedures in the party.

Grbin, one of the four who were suspended for criticising party leadership, told reporters that a proposal was presented during the meeting to hold an intra-party referendum on holding party elections, but that it was not accepted.

He said that Bernardic came to the meeting with the proposal that he should be elected chair of the SDP parliamentary group but that by the end of the meeting it transpired that he did not have the necessary support.

Deputy party whip Sabina Glasovac said yesterday she would step down if Bernardic took over the chairmanship of the SDP parliamentary group, while current party whip Arsen Bauk said that he was unable to perform his function in the current situation.

Asked if he thought he should resign because of the party’s poor rating and his own unpopularity, Bernardic said “the polling agencies work in the interest of the (ruling party) HDZ.”

“Interest import lobbies and big business launched a campaign against me when I started talking about (the crisis in) Agrokor, insisting on the truth… and asking where the money is,” he said.

SDP is the largest opposition party in the parliament, but its ratings have been in free fall in recent months amid internal conflicts which culminated mid-July, when 90 dissatisfied SDP members signed a letter demanding that Bernardic step down for the benefit of SDP.

According to the latest polling from August, the ruling centre-right Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) is at 28.9 percent, while SDP’s ratings, at 17.3 percent, were lowest in the last ten years. Many analysts, but also party members themselves, blame Bernardic for the record-low ratings.

Grbin said that the final deadline for the SDP parliamentary group to hold a meeting was Tuesday, since the next parliamentary session will start on Wednesday.

He also added that party members who were dissatisfied with the way Bernardic was running the party did not intend to leave the SDP but would continue to represent the voters who had elected them.

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