The mayor of Omisalj and Social Democratic Party (SDP) parliamentarian, Mirela Ahmetovic, said on Wednesday that the party was in a crisis of identity and that she had concrete solutions for the improvement of the situation in this strongest Opposition party.

Presenting her candidacy for the party leadership, Ahmetovic said that “SDP is undergoing a crisis of personnel and policies, and is estranged from its members and has a crisis of identity.”

“I think that I have the right way of analysing the state of affairs in the party and that I can propose adequate measures to remedy the situation,” she said, but declined to comment on whether she or another presidential hopeful, Pedja Grbin, is a better candidate to take the helm of the party after it lost the 5 July parliamentary elections, which prompted SDP chief Davor Bernardic to resign.

The SDP is holding intra-party elections on 26 September according to the model one member-one vote.

Ahmetovic, the 39-year-old mayor of the town of Omisalj on the island of Krk, believes that the SDP must clearly define the targets for its own development and also policies which it will pursue.

She said that she advocates economic policies implemented by the present-day Social Democrat parties in developed European countries, where the role of the state is to ensure a balanced regional development and to help the market in the segments in which it cannot function on its own.

Ahmetovic called for maintaining the zipper system to alternate female and male candidates on slates for elections and for stronger engagement of young people in election activities.

She said that the SDP must stand against the retraditionalising society and of the inequality of women.

Ahmetovic also called for the struggle against corruption inside the SDP and in the society alike.