The Mayor of Krizevci and long-time member of the Presidency of the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS), Branko Hrg, was elected HSS president for a four-year term at the party's convention in Zagreb on Saturday.
Hrg received 555 votes from 937 delegates, while his rival, former Tourism Minister Damir Bajs, got 374. Eight ballots were declared invalid.
Hrg took over from Josip Friscic, who addressed the convention before the vote calling on the HSS membership to act as one on the road to the party's recovery.
Friscic stressed the need for the HSS to reposition itself at national level as an important factor on Croatia's political scene by establishing partnerships with parties that promoted similar values.
Commenting on the HSS's poor showing in the December 4 parliamentary election, Friscic said that few of their good moves had received recognition and that a lot of necessary moves had met with general dissatisfaction. He said that the electorate had wanted change and that despite receiving over 70,000 votes the party had won only one seat in Parliament. In the previous parliament there had been six HSS deputies.
Friscic said that as the party's leader he had taken responsibility for its failure in the election and decided not to stand for HSS president.
He said that 20,000 new members had joined the HSS between the two election conventions, so that the party now had over 51,000 members.
Hrg and Bajs were the only candidates for the post.
Presenting his platform before the vote, Hrg put emphasis on the need to promote the HSS as the party representing the interests of Croatian farmers and small-business owners in the 21st century, insisting on national awareness and social justice. He said that with a new leadership the HSS would never again be "a party of traders" and that decisions on future coalitions would be made only by the HSS Assembly.
Bajs recalled that in the previous government the HSS had run the departments of tourism and regional development, and had been responsible for water management and forestry, adding that the HSS had made some good moves which had not been promoted enough as a result of which the HSS's role had not been recognised.
Bajs also said that his priority would be the interests of farmers and small enterprises, and that he would push for a stronger involvement of women in the party.
