Prime Minister and Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) leader Andrej Plenkovic said on Saturday that no political party in Croatia's history had done more for the country’s sovereignty, independence and freedom than his.

“No one else either had the opportunity or pushed so much for Croatia’s strong position on the international scene,” Plenkovic said in Ogulin at a ceremony marking the 29th anniversary of the HDZ’s Karlovac County branch.

He said Croatia and all of Europe were in a complex international context, and that the HDZ’s rivals on the far right in the upcoming European Parliament elections, by “preaching sovereignism,” were targeting HDZ voters.

Their concept of sovereignty is about 30 years old and shows their ignorance of the present and Croatia’s position, he added.

Plenkovic said that when it joined the European Union, Croatia gathered part of is sovereignty at the supranational level in order to be stronger, not weaker.

He recalled that a majority of the funding for projects came from the EU.

He went on to say that the HDZ had led reforms aimed at ensuring democratic institutions, high standards in the protection of human and minority rights, a functioning justice system, and press freedoms.Plenkovic said the government was continuing with decentralisation.

“The HDZ has set partnership, functioning decentralisation, fiscal decentralisation and joint projects as the four main elements for kickstarting the development of all of Croatia.”

He said they had ensured 44 projects for Karlovac County worth over HRK 2.5 billion.

(EUR 1 = HRK 7.4)