Croatia Serbs Set Terms For Backing HDZ Govt

Milorad Pupovac, leader of the Croatian Serbs and a national minority MP in the Croatian parliament, told BIRN that he is ready to join a potential government led by the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, which won most seats in the recent elections.

Pupovac expressed willingness to support the new HDZ leader, Andrej Plenkovic, who took over the party in July and promised a more centrist orientation, unlike his predecessor, Tomislav Karamarko.

But Pupovac said the "minimal preconditions for participation in and support for the government" would be the exclusion from the government of the controversial former culture minister, Zlatko Hasanbegovic, who is accused of holding revisionist views about the Second World War and Croatia's then Fascist government.

Although some question the HDZ's new centrist direction, due to the election to parliament of a number of far-right candidates on the party's lists, Pupovac said Plenkovic had started to reform the party and Serbian minority MPs would help him to do this.

"Plenkovic has started reforms in the HDZ and ahead of him lies the task of finishing them. If he needs support to reform the country and his party, he will get it, [from national minorities representatives]," Pupovac said.

"There are many things that need to be done both for Croatia and for the Croatian Serbs. First of all, peace and tolerance is needed, as is mutual respect, stopping the rise of conflicts and extremism and dedication to the future, not to the past," he said.

He added that reforms were needed in the judiciary, the public administration, public companies and in defining economic policy.

Regarding the Serbian minority, Pupovac emphasised the need for policies to integrate national minorities and enable equal...