"This proves again that this government is two-faced and hypocritical. Their economic platform was one thing, its realisation another, and what they are doing is something else altogether. What goes for them doesn't go for others," Tomislav Karamarko said in Split on Saturday.

Recalling the "cases of Antesic and Minister Jakovina", he criticised the fact that they were disregarded, saying "Social Democratic sins and false morality is evidently something widely accepted."

Karamarko urged the government "to really get serious and if they can't run the government, they should create a caretaker government, move out of the way."

Asked to comment on the creation of a new coordinating body for investment, he said "it won't do anything" because it offered neither hope nor trust to foreigners, which had resulted in a credit rating downgrade.

Asked about the HDZ's stance on the introduction of bilingualism, Karamarko said the law would have to be respected but that one would have to act cautiously because "some wounds are still fresh" and the HDZ would define its position on the matter.

He dismissed media claims that Milan Bandic, Zvonimir Boban or Drazen Siriscevic could be the HDZ's candidates for Zagreb mayor, declining to reveal the names of potential candidates. He also dismissed media claims that he had proposed Split Deputy Mayor Andjelka Viskovic as the HDZ's mayoral candidate in the southern seaport.

Asked to comment on former President Stjepan Mesic's recent statement that those digging up graves did not deserve to run Croatia, Karamarko said, "He hasn't realised that Europe has distanced itself from and condemned Communist crimes."

He said the HDZ would push for criminalising Communist insignia.

He also said the party expected to make a "good step forward" in this year's local elections and that in the 2014 parliamentary election the "Reds... must be completely removed from Croatia."