"SEPTEMBARSKO GLASANJE"

Morning paper news jUTARNJI LIST ELECTIONS IN SEPTEMBER Ostojic answered a key question - why didn't the entire SDP Presidency resign? Today, the SDP held a press conference on the current political situation in that party Author: Jutarnji.hrPosted: July 07, 2020 11:04 am 8184765 Ranko Šuvar / Cropix Facebook Twitter Messenger E-mail RELATED NEWS Zoran Milanovic COMMENT Gvozden Flego: Social Democracy will recover from Milanovic for a long time WHEN YOU DON'T WANT ... SDP members stumbled even in one of their strongest strongholds: Katarina Peović surpassed them all Today, the SDP held a press conference at which the party's vice president Rajko Ostojic spoke about the current political situation in that party after a poor result in the elections . - You know that our president has transferred all his powers to his deputy Zlatko Komadina , who will lead the election process in the SDP. We had a meeting yesterday and we agreed on it and already yesterday we convened the Main Board for Saturday, 18.7. Everyone received an SMS message for 18.7. A couple of days before they will receive the material, the agenda with all the accompanying analyzes. We have agreed that the Presidency meeting will be next week. All four suspended members will also be invited. Their suspension is expiring these days. The principled position of us in the Presidency is that the elections should be organized as soon as possible and we will propose this to the Main Committee - that the elections be somewhere behind the Assumption, but that the target date be Saturday or Sunday, September 26 or 27. A date is set and all possible pre-work is organized one month before. We will make and present the analysis of the elections at the Presidency and the Main Board. We expect a discussion there. Should the entire Presidency have resigned? - We have clearly discussed this, everyone who participated in the election process feels responsible, but the bodies and organs of the party must lead the election process. We won't tighten it. The results are bad and we will organize elections for the new leadership. In our country it is chosen differently than in other parties: we are going a step forward: all members of the Presidency, the Main Board are elected by one man one vote, respecting gender equality, not just the president, deputy and vice presidents. Will you run? I will certainly not run for party president, and whether I will run for another office, we will discuss. It is important that the transition period passes peacefully. I did an analysis of my constituency, the 2nd constituency is the ‘death unit’. Of the 4th Zagreb elections, the last few elections were the worst, always the last. This year is the best, the first. I’m not happy about it, I’m sad about it, but it’s a fact: out of 10, the second is third in a row. She fell, but so did some others. We won 4 seats there, the fifth went to us by a few hundred votes. The results are not good, but we came from 3rd at the back of the SDP units. Will the party still be led by the same people? - That will be decided by our members. The election result is poor in all constituencies. We fell in all constituencies. Who will run from the Presidency for which position will be their decision, and they are elected only by members of the SDP, no convention, assembly, but only members, they know who worked for the party, who is not ... can not be democratic. Will there be a group? I supported Bernardic and I did not regret it. He was great at the confrontations, it’s a shame he didn’t realize that talent of his 3-4 years ago but that’s a factual situation. What we need to imagine clearly is the fact proved by the exit poll on the focus of our voters. We have the oldest voters from the urban part and it was my idea a couple of years ago when I supported Bernardic, he as a young man by his example could draw young voters. We have to think that our messages obviously did not reach our voters. I do not want to justify myself, but the fact is that the fewer voters, the more seats for the HDZ. Only 46 percent of voters turned out. That is the responsibility of all of us, says Ostojic. He also referred to the fact that the suspended members of the SDP Presidency received the most preferential votes. - It's the same message. History repeats itself. Remember Tonino Picula when he was at the bottom of the list for the EU elections and received 150,000 votes. He was first on the list last year, and he didn’t get that much. We are subjective, we seek objective analysis and we work on it. I am satisfied with my preferential votes, I am glad that I beat Bandić, Škora, Raspudić, I am sorry that I lost the 5th term ... But all in all, it is bad. I think we need to change the messages to our voters, be more aggressive, clearer, more accurate and that is what the new president will be working on. How difficult will it be to restore voter confidence until the local elections? - That is why we are in a hurry with the elections. We lost 220,000 votes. Some other options have received votes, so we are in a hurry because we have to prepare for the local elections, to get the prefects, mayors, deputies ... The new president will give rhythm to the local elections. They show the strength of the party. Asked if he already has a favorite for the new party president, Ostojic says: - Personally, I have no favorites. The names mentioned have their dignity, success, some now, some have had before. It is a match, we are colleagues, no one said a hard word against Bernardic, at least I did not see. He did the same as Milanovic, even 12 hours earlier. We want to organize this as soon as possible. The internal party elections will pass, I hope, without difficult words, but with arguments. What will be the focus when electing a new party leader and will there be more than one candidate? - I think it is not democratic if we do not have at least two candidates. But it is a person who has a career, professional and political, that must not be contaminated by scandals, even those that are packed for us, and we all have something packed. It is important to remove that package from yourself. A person who won some elections, local, county, European ... Don't forget the ones before from 2012 or 2013 when there were no preferential votes yet ... It is a combination of all these criteria. Politics is not a scientific discipline and it is a pity. Politics is a perception, but we have always had three great presidents, I am convinced we will have a fourth. I expect the new president to make a shift in the SDP. The situation for the Social Democrats in Europe is not good. We need to introduce green policies. Mirela Holy made a very good result in Zagreb. We need to change our policy and get back to our roots. 21st century workers, the fight against precariat, all workers who no longer work in the mines but work in their offices. Don’t forget retirees too. We have turned our backs on them and someone needs to repay their victim’s debt to them. When asked that Bernardic did not actually resign, but transferred his authority to Komadin, Ostojic said: - His status is identical to the status of Zoran Milanović . He transferred all the powers of the party president to Komadin. He will not run in non-partisan elections, run for SDP president. Legally, he is the president on paper, but all decisions are made by Zlatko Komadina. He is the de facto president, not de jure, but he is de facto. He will not run, I guarantee you that and that is what he said. How can someone run after such a result? We do not take pictures or messages of our presidents, you know that we unanimously supported the President of the Republic a few months ago. The doors of the SDP are open to Bernardic. Trust me, he’s already gone on vacation, he needs a break. He longs for you journalists, but he needs a break from us. He won’t run, that’s for sure. Will the SDP be headed by a woman this time? - We have the most colleagues and we are proud of that. If we had a better result, there would be even more. Five candidates: Borzan, Grbin, Hajdaš-Dončić, Jakšić and Mršić meet all the criteria to be a good president of the SDP, but our members will decide on that. No one is contaminated, there is no affair, they are good at their job, they were ministers, members of parliament, they ran companies, they were mayors, MEPs ... They are good candidates. But it is not excluded that there will be more candidates, and not only those five, Ostojic concluded.