European Forum

Croatian ruling party expels ex-PM after his announcement to return to politics

Former Croatian Prime Minister, Ivo Sanader, has been expelled today from the country’s ruling conservative party, Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) -a day after he criticized his successor and announced he was returning to politics. 

Party leader and Croatian Prime Minister, Jadranka Kosor, told journalists that the decision to expel Sanader, backed by the majority in the HDZ’s policy-making presidency, was made because Sanader “inflicted damage to the party and violated its statute”. 

Accusations towards leadership
The decision came just a day after Sanader stunned Croatia by announcing his return to politics in a hastily organised press conference held at HDZ headquarters. Sanader did not inform Kosor about his intention to hold the press conference during which he said his decision was motivated by the poor showing of the HDZ candidate Andrija Hebrang in the Presidential poll last week. He added that the result - the worst since HDZ’s founding in 1989- is mainly a consequence of the deficient party leadership. Hebrang won just 12 per cent of the vote, failing to reach the run-off which will be held on January 10 between Ivo Josipovic of the SDP and independent candidate and mayor of Zagreb Milan Bandic. 

Ranko Ostojic, member of the presidency of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), argued that the serious instability within the HDZ confirms the validity of the SDP demand to hold early elections. 

Dangerous for future of the country
Kosor said that Sanader’s comments were “very damaging and dangerous not just for the party, but also for the coalition government and for the future of Croatia.” Sanader’s return to politics, after his unexpected withdrawal last summer, threatened to strain HDZ’s relationship with other government parties which said they would leave the ruling coalition if he regained political control. All HDZ’s coalition partners voiced their support for Kosor. 

While yesterday Sanader said he would “accept the HDZ’s decision if it is in the interest of the party”, he could still seek to become an independent MP and to win over some HDZ deputies. However, Kosor said that she was not afraid of that happening while noting that Sanader “has a right to return to Parliament.” 

Sudden withdrawal 
Sanader was Croatia’s PM from 2003 until he unexpectedly resigned and entirely withdrew from politics in the summer of 2009 due to ‘personal reasons’. It was alleged in some media that his abrupt exit from politics was aimed at avoiding the corruption scandals, but Sanader strongly denied the allegations saying he stepped down because he was “not ready to sell Croatia’s territory” for the sake of EU’s membership, referring to the border dispute with Slovenia which was blocking Croatia’s EU integration. After his resignation Sanader retained the ambiguous title of honorary party chairman. 

Sources: Hrvatska Radio Televizija, NRC, Vecernji, BalkanInsight and portal SDP