"I'm not thinking of provoking an early election. I never discussed it with anyone," Milanovic said in an interview with the Jutarnji List daily of Saturday. "Constructive cooperation with the Labour Party would be difficult at the moment," he said when asked to comment on media reports on an early elections and the possibility of the Labour Party becoming the SDP's new strategic partner. "Labour leaders are not true politicians but current political entrepreneurs. They don't have any political platform and are simply short-term political profiteers in a time of crisis."

When asked what he expected from local elections in May, Milanovic said that the SDP expected a victory in all large urban areas, but that it was clear to him that that would be rather difficult in "some cities, notably in Zagreb". He believes that the SDP candidate for Mayor of Zagreb, Rajko Ostojic, can win, but thinks that Ostojic is still not enough involved in the campaign. "He has to invest absolutely all his energy in the mayoral race and I'm sure he can win."

Speaking of Ostojic's rival and former SDP member, the incumbent Mayor Milan Bandic, Milanovic said that Bandic "has proved himself a poor mayor over the past 12 years," citing "eccentric debts and serious indications of corruption." He said he was convinced that "Zagreb deserves better."

Asked when Croatia would emerge from the recession, Milanovic said that it was realistic to expect that in 2014, noting that earlier projections had been based on projections of growth in the European Union.

"We won't start growing before the Union starts growing. We won't start creating new jobs on a large scale and we won't start living better. This sounds depressing, but it's closest to the reality. I don't want to delude anyone," the prime minister said, adding that the focus was not on government but on private investments which "must form the backbone of the Croatian economy."

When asked how he explained "the radical escalation of chauvinism" among the Croatian public, he said that the latest outbursts of chauvinism were "conceived and carried out" by the strongest opposition party, the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ).

"It's regrettable that we have to deal with interethnic relations amidst the present huge economic and social crisis, and that's because our rivals are unable to compete in any area other than rallying Croatian voters on nationalist grounds," the PM said.

On the subject of a recent visit by Judith Reisman, a US activist and opponent of health education in schools, and the position of the Catholic Church in this case, Milanovic said that it seemed to him that it was "a planned, premeditated provocation". When asked whether he meant that the Church was openly collaborating with the HDZ, he responded: "It was a planned and premeditated provocation, whoever was behind it." He said that he had done all in his power so that relations between the Government and the Church were good. "The Church's policy was obviously going in a different direction, which I regret."

Commenting on the situation in the Croatian media, Milanovic said that it was "even worse than the general situation in the country." "The media are bad not just because of their content and presentation of that content, but even more because of hidden agendas that partly define their content," Milanovic said, noting that his opinion had nothing to do with the attitude of the media towards him personally or towards his Cabinet.