After Mayor Milan Bandic and his Work and Solidarity Party withdrew all of their 71 amendments to the controversial Zagreb's general urban development plan, the city branch of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party has pulled four of its 15 amendments, City Assembly chairman Drago Prgomet (HDZ) said during an Assembly session on Monday.

Addressing reporters outside the HDZ main offices, the HDZ leader, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, said that the HDZ’s amendments to the development plan benefited the citizens and that he could not see why the party should withdraw them, all the more so because the opposition had spoken favourably of them.

“If the amendments are good, I don’t see why we wouldn’t adopt them,” Plenkovic told reporters, adding that all the amendments require approval by the Construction Ministry.

“The general urban development plan should be adopted. I’m certain that it contains good solutions that would advance Zagreb,” Plenkovic said.

At last week’s City Assembly session, 86 amendments to the development plan were submitted, of which 15 by the HDZ, 65 by the Work and Solidarity Party and six by the mayor himself. Bandic has withdrawn his amendments after the leadership of the Zagreb HDZ decided that the party would not support his amendments that related to repurposing green spaces. Acting out of principle, the HDZ on Monday pulled four of its amendments relating to repurposing green spaces.

“We have said that this is a matter of principle. We have heard our expert committees and accepted their suggestions. We still don’t have an agreement with Bandic on the remaining 11 amendments,” said Kazimir Ilijas, the chairman of the HDZ group in the City Assembly, hinting that the HDZ was not going to give up the 11 amendments.