Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) president Jadranka Kosor said on Sunday night that her party had achieved a good result in the hardest election yet, adding that their political rivals had failed in their attempt to remove the HDZ from the political scene.
Kosor thanked all voters who had cast their ballots for the HDZ and said that "as of this moment the HDZ is beginning to work on a victory at the next election."
"I want to say on behalf of the party that this has been the hardest election yet ... and an election race in which it was made impossible for us to run on an equal footing," Kosor said at the HDZ election headquarters.
Kosor criticised media for siding with the centre-left opposition coalition and for "declaring the election finished long before." "We have achieved a good result considering the conditions in which we worked," she said and added that their rivals failed in their attempt to humiliate the HDZ and bring it to its knees.
"Croatia is becoming an EU member on 1 July 2013 thanks to our commitment and our determination not to give up even in the most difficult of times when those on the left tried to topple the HDZ government," Kosor said, thanking her colleagues from the HDZ presidency for returning to the fundamental programme of the party which was founded by Franjo Tudjman.
In her address, Kosor did not congratulate the election winners.
