The ruling coalition's Social Democratic Party (SDP) on Sunday condemned in strong terms the message by the president of the opposition Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), Tomislav Karamarko, that the HDZ and its coalition partners must "demolish this government" on the state level.
"We consider such rhetoric, even if used for election purposes, inappropriate and dangerous," the SDP said in a statement regarding Karamarko's statement at a local election rally in Makarska on Saturday.
The SDP said it did not dispute Karamarko's right to attack political opponents and the media, but that it had the duty to react to a call for "demolishing" the legally elected government of a country about to join the European Union.
"It is above all sad that Mr Karamarko, in the absence of confrontation with political opponents, on the local and state levels, in the field of ideas, solutions and programmes, even well-argumented criticism, cowardly resorts to such rhetoric, actually calling for demolition by force and violence outside of institutions," the statement said.
