The Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Vladimir Seks of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), rejected during a parliamentary debate on Wednesday the Social Democratic Party's (SDP) initiative for a vote of no confidence in Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor, saying that the SDP would fail in its attempt to act both as a prosecutor and a judge against the Prime Minister.
"According to the SDP, Kosor is already sentenced to political death and the only thing that is necessary is her execution, which should happen in parliament today or tomorrow, but all that will end as a pathetic, miserable attempt at scoring cheap political points," Seks said, accusing the SDP and its leader, Zoran Milanovic, of staging a political trial against the Prime Minister.
"The Prime Minister has been accused and found guilty, and the prosecutors and judges, led by 'Comrade Milanovic', have accused her of committing the crime of a counter-revolutionary attack against the government of working people and citizens and have sentenced her to a vote of no confidence," Seks said.
"On the contrary, I insist that Prime Minister Kosor is not guilty, because it has been found and proved that she has been conducting a responsible policy with which she managed, at the time of a great economic crisis, to protect the living standards of the most vulnerable social groups and that she has been responsibly implementing anti-recession measures and structural reforms in efforts to encourage economic growth," Seks said.
"She is not guilty, because she acquitted herself as the staunchest champion against corruption under the motto 'No one is untouchable'," he added, stressing that the government's efforts were also directed at completing EU accession negotiations as soon as possible.
Seks's speech received tumultuous applause from the HDZ benches, while SDP deputies described it as a farce, a failed satire and an attack on democracy.
Parliament Deputy Speaker Zeljka Antunovic of the SDP said that most deputies did not understand what Seks was talking about, adding that it was Seks who used to be a member of a party that condemned people.
SDP deputy Zeljko Jovanovic described Seks's speech as a farce. "You violated both the parliamentary Rules of Procedure and the Constitution by denying the Opposition the right to show that we here have been elected by citizens of Croatia and that this Parliament has elected a government that is accountable to it and that this Parliament is not an appendage to the government and its voting machine," he said.
Jovanovic accused Seks of exerting pressure on the Constitutional Court to reject the opinion of the 800,000 citizens who had signed trade unions' petition for a referendum against government-sponsored amendments to labour legislation.
