"You can't seriously weaken a party that was the only one that had the courage and strength to launch a true fight against corruption," Kosor said in an interview with Croatian Radio, when asked if her party, affected by scandals regarding slush funds and a poor rating, would get a chance for a makeup test.

"Makeup tests are for those who have flunked, who don't know anything and haven't learned anything. So, I wouldn't call it a makeup test, I would call a new term in office my first full term, and in a way a new term in office for my party," Kosor said.

Kosor went on to say that the decline in the party's rating was a result of "a media and every other lynching campaign that started with full force last Sunday," and which she stressed was not accidental because it began in the week when the HDZ had a general convention. "The media speculated this and that, that nobody would show up, that there would be catcalls, that it would be a disaster, but as you can see, none of that happened."

She noted that every time the government did a good job, such as when Croatia on Saturday received a draft treaty on its accession to the EU, some media broadcast surveys spelling doom for the HDZ, the government and the ruling coalition.

"This refers to media reports which took absolutely for granted some allegations and some people for whom I still cannot say if they are credible. The fact is that the media take as authentic everything that can incriminate the HDZ and me, while absolutely exonerating people who have possibly given such statements."

Kosor reiterated that until the end of her political life she would not get tired of the fight against corruption, which she said would be in full swing once there were no untouchables in Croatia.

Asked who she was referring to, she said that she was not being interrogated, but recalled a statement by Social Democrat Slavko Linic that his party, if it came to power, would closely follow all trials and steps by the Office of the Chief State Prosecutor and the anti-corruption investigative agency USKOK and make decisions on the destiny of key people in the judiciary accordingly.

"We still don't know what has happened with the case of Trznice Rijeka (fresh produce market operator), even though it has been open since March 2010. It's a very clear message - watch out what you're doing - and no one, not even the media, have responded to it," Kosor said, adding that no one had reacted either to recent claims by Ivan Zvonimir Cicak, president of the Croatian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, that he had information about the funding of an opposition party.

"The fight against corruption has just started, it has yet to gain momentum and lead to a final answer - those who stole must end up in prison, those who didn't steel, nothing must happen to them and they must be compensated for in every way," she said.

Asked if she would advocate the same position if the HDZ was indicted as a legal person, Kosor said: "Never mind about the HDZ. The HDZ has 230,000 members, honest people who do their job honestly, many have been left without work in this crisis, many barely make ends meet. The HDZ has launched the fight against corruption, at this moment it carries the burden no one has ever carried, the burden that did the most damage to the HDZ, but I'm certain that the process that we have opened is important and crucial for Croatia and its democratisation and for strengthening the autonomy of the judiciary. If we succeed in that fight until the very end, it will primarily be a dream come true for Croatian veterans who fought for a law-based state."

She dismissed as nonsense and a lie claims that judicial autonomy was compromised when USKOK, only a day after the HDZ made such a request, launched a probe into the leaking of confidential information from investigations.

"The newspapers, the media, the television, yesterday's prime time news broadcast on Croatian Television - they can't be the judges or the investigators. There are rules as to who runs the investigation and information gathered during investigation must remain in USKOK and the DORH. No one has the right to manipulate it. What is happening now is the worst case of manipulation," Kosor said.

She dismissed claims from the opposition that by making a decision to transfer shares in the Adriatic oil pipeline operator Janaf and the insurance company Croatia Osiguranje to the Pensioners' Fund the government was selling "the family silver", saying that her government, unlike the coalition government led by the Social Democrats, had recognised its debt to pensioners and decided to pay it.