The Croatian Sovereignists (HS) are no longer part of the governing coalition with the Domovinski pokret (DP) in Vukovar. They left the coalition on Monday because they were dissatisfied with the treatment of the DP, as was announced at a press conference.

Members of the Vukovar City Council who belong to the HS left a city council meeting today during a vote on the proposed agenda items.

The head of HS Vukovar and deputy mayor of Vukovar, Filip Susac, said they were mainly dissatisfied with the way they were treated by DP leader and Vukovar mayor Ivan Penava.

HS will run alone in the local elections

The reason for the break in the coalition was Monday’s session of the City Council, where a debate on the adoption of the city budget for 2025 and on parking tickets in the Borovo Naselje neighbourhood was put on the agenda without prior consultations with the HS, Susac said, noting that for the first time in ten years, the HS was not involved in the preparation of the city budget proposal.

He added that the lack of respect for the HS “evidently due to a coalition having been agreed between the local branches of the DP and HDZ parties” for the 2025 local elections.

Susac said that the HS will run its own candidate for mayor in the local elections.

The Vukovar City Council has 19 seats – five seats each are held by the DP and HDZ, four seats by the HS, two by the Independent Democratic Serbian Party (SDSS) and one each by the DSS and HNS parties. The chairman of the city council, Zeljko Sabo, is an independent who was previously part of the ruling coalition.