The head of Istria County and deputy leader of the Istrian Democratic Party (IDS) will be the top candidate on the Amsterdam Coalition slate in the European Parliament elections in May, the IDS decided at a convention in the northern coastal town of Porec on Saturday.

Flego will be the only candidate of the IDS on the liberal-left coalition’s slate whose members believe could win one or two seats in the European Parliament.

“Our party today is characterised by the attributes of consistency and credibility, something that other political parties in this country definitely need,” IDS leader Boris Miletic told reporters after the convention.

Noting that the Amsterdam Coalition was growing steadily not just in approval ratings but also because other liberal and left-leaning parties were joining it, Miletic said he was confident that the IDS would score yet another victory in the forthcoming elections.

Flego said: “In the last 15 years Istria has received about HRK 1.3 billion (EUR 175 million) from EU funds, and Istria’s representative in Brussels has a very important part in this. In the next 100 days to the elections, we want to do all we can together that Istria has its representative in Brussels because it is in the European Parliament that nearly two-thirds of laws that directly affect the daily lives of each of us are made.”

Asked to comment on the four years in the office of President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, Miletic said that Grabar-Kitarovic had inappropriately reduced her presidency to the level of show business.

“After the European Parliament elections, we will definitely stand behind one candidate who will challenge the incumbent president. We will decide on this in June,” Miletic said. He would not say whether that candidate would be former SDP prime minister Zoran Milanovic.

The IDS today marked the 29th anniversary of its foundation.