"Your timing is not so good," Andrija Hebrang of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) told Social Democratic Party (SDP) deputies, who had initiated the debate in Parliament.

Hebrang said that a fall of the government would be damaging now that the government of Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor had removed the main barriers to EU entry and after the measures of the Economic Recovery Programme had started to produce results.

Hebrang said the SDP initiative would interrupt the government at a moment when it had launched an anti-corruption campaign "in which there are no untouchables".

Responding to the SDP's accusations that the government had disgraced Croatia, Hebrang cited numerous international acknowledgements the Prime Minister had received.

"We get more credit abroad than at home. We get a more favourable press abroad than at home," Hebrang said, adding that EU officials were surprised that Croatian media were biased in their news coverage and were spreading gloom and doom.

Hebrang continued defending the Prime Minister by listing economic achievements during the term of her government. He stressed that Croatia had entered the crisis later than the European Union and would come out of it later.

"This government has kick-started the economy, so why are they attacking it? Because they don't want to face these facts, they don't want a discussion based on figures, but on political interests," Hebrang said.

SDP deputy Nenad Stazic responded by wondering how Hebrang could be trusted after he admitted that it was he who had suggested to former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader to give the Slovenian blockade of Croatia's EU accession talks as the reason for his resignation in July 2009.

Hebrang dismissed this as a lie, saying that he had only speculated about the reason for Sanader's resignation, while in fact he did not know the actual reason.

Milorad Pupovac of the Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) was also against the no-confidence vote, saying that the economic crisis should not be compounded with a political one "in which we all will totally lose control of the processes."

Pupovac said he was aware that "delaying a solution to the economic recovery of the country is very risky both for the present and for the future government, and for the country as a whole," but added that it would be "riskier to take measures as a result of which we would lose control of the processes."

"There is no political justification for such a move," Pupovac said.

"The Prime Minister has the support of the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS)," HSS leader Josip Friscic said, adding that the Kosor government had removed obstacles to the realisation of goals set out in the ruling coalition's joint programme. Here he cited the lifting of Slovenia's blockade of EU membership negotiations, two budget revisions that had stabilised state finances, and subsidies to crisis-affected sectors such as the wood industry.

Prime Minister Kosor also received support from the caucus of independent deputies.