President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandrokovic on Tuesday laid a wreath at the grave of Croatia's first president and founder of the ruling centre-right HDZ party, Franjo Tudjman, at Zagreb's Mirogoj cemetery, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of his death.

Attending the wreath-laying ceremony were also several government ministers, Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandic, members of the Tudjman family, military officials and other politicians and public figures.

Plenkovic: Tudjman left an indelible mark on history of Croatian people

Prime Minister and HDZ party leader, Andrej Plenkovic, said that they had gathered at Tudjman’s grave as representatives of the state leadership as well as people who respected Tudjman’s statesmanship in the critical moments of Croatia’s struggle for freedom, independence, democracy, liberation of occupied areas and the peaceful reintegration of the Danube region.

“As a statesman, dissident, historian, commander, politician but primarily as a victor, Dr Tudjman has left an indelible mark on the history of the Croatian people. With his wisdom and knowledge he used the watershed moment on the European continent to make it possible for the Croat people to make its thousand-year-old dream of freedom and independence come true,” said Plenkovic.

It is often forgotten that the movement led by Tudjman brought Croatia not only independence but also democracy and freedom, which some are trying to question today, said Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandrokovic, adding that without Tudjman historical processes would not have been to the benefit of the Croat people.

Asked by reporters to comment on statements by some presidential candidates that the HDZ had betrayed Tudjman, Jandrokovic said that those were ugly accusations and that people making such statements had never understood or accepted Tudjman’s doctrine.