Enough of tyranny, lies and corruption, enough of the HDZ, Croatia can be better, Social Democratic Party president Peđa Grbin said at a protest left-liberal opposition parties organised in the centre of Zagreb on Saturday.

He thanked the thousands of citizens from all over Croatia who gathered in St. Mark’s Square and the surrounding streets.

“We are not here because we are angry and furious but because we know deep in our hearts that Croatia can do better. This is our country, our home, and we won’t let anyone seize and steal it from us like they stole everything else,” Grbin said.

The future can be far better than the present we live in, the present in which they rob, insult, threaten and attack us, he said. “Let’s say ‘enough’ to that Croatia.”

The ruling HDZ has tried to buy the media and to amend the Penal Code to criminalise the disclosure of information from investigations, and it appointed Ivan Turudić as state attorney general, Grbin said.

We can’t be bought, our Croatia is without corruption and crime, with normal pensions, he said, while protesters shouted that Prime Minister Andrej Plenković has to go. “There is hope for this country, we will give this country back its future, he added.

Freedom is the greatest value, said Social Democrats president Davorko Vidović. “There is no freedom in a country where it is institutionally decided who does and who does not possess the truth, who can and who can’t say that truth.”

“We can’t accept to be dragged into autocracy, destruction, totalitarianism. This country and these people proved that those are the values of freedom that we won’t give for anything,” he said, calling on citizens to go to the polls.

The HDZ, a party convicted of corruption, criminal association and plundering the state, has caused chaos, said Ivica Puljak, president of the Centre party and mayor of Split.

The HDZ “has made a black hole in which corruption and clientelism devour everything around them, leaving a wasteland where there was hope,” he said, calling for change which Croatia needs for a new era to start in which laws and justice will rule.

Puljak proposed adopting a law after the parliamentary election under which every party convicted of corruption and crime will be banned.

Istrian Democratic Party president Dalibor Paus said Turudić’s appointment as state attorney general “transparently” showed that “they want to protect themselves,” that by amending the Penal Code, dubbed Lex AP, they wanted to silence “all of us who are pointing to all their stealing.”

“It’s clear that in the next election, we need to detox Croatia of the HDZ and its rule,” he added. “We are here because Turudić’s appointment in parliament was a slap to all of us, all honest and decent people… It’s time we kicked the HDZ’s butt in the election and came to power.”

“No one has devastated the country like the HDZ and Plenkovic. We all have the right to the country and liberal democracy. Plenkovic and the HDZ, enough, enough, go, go!” said Anka Mrak Taritas of GLAS.

“HDZ, Quislings, traitors, thieves… Enough! It’s time! Down with the HDZ!,” said Katarina Peovic of the Workers’ Front, calling on everyone to unite, from professors to nurses. Plenkovic has made one in six Croats emigrate, she added.

Kreso Beljak of the Croatian Peasant Party called the prime minister Plenkoshenko and the HDZ a criminal gang which has been terrorising Croatia for 30 years. “Enough! To hell with the gang of thieves”, he shouted

Davor Nadji (Focus), Natalija Martincevic (Reformists) and Dario Vasilic (PGS) had similar messages and emphasised in particular Turudic’s appointment as state attorney general.

Directors Ivana Bodrozic and Dana Budisavljevic and author Edo Popovic said they loved Croatia and wanted change because they wanted to stay in Croatia.