Vukovar Mayor Zeljko Sabo of the senior partner in the ruling coalition, the Social Democratic Party (SDP), told a press conference on Monday that it was in fact he who in 2009 put a veto on the city's statute preventing the introduction of bilingual street signs and public name plates in that town but then he was alone in that.
Sabo was responding to accusations at a rally on Saturday when a crowd of over 20,000 people gathered in protest against the introduction of Cyrillic signs in Vukovar, that he had not done enough to prevent this.
He recalled that in 2009 it was in fact the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), the Independent Democratic Serbian Party (SDSS) and the Croatian Party of Rights (HSP) that had adopted amendments to the town's statute allowing the introduction of Cyrillic street signs and public nameplates and only the SDP and he as Mayor had opposed it then.
According to Sabo, Saturday's protest rally was used by the HDZ and HSP Dr. Ante Starcevic to cause unrest among Vukovar's population and directed against the incumbent government and measures being undertaken to revive Croatia's economy.
He denied allegations that he had done nothing to inform state leaders about the problems that the introduction of Cyrillic script in Vukovar could cause, saying that just last Wednesday he had cautioned President Ivo Josipovic and Parliament Speaker Josip Leko and SDSS leader Vojislav Stanimirovic precisely about this matter.
He added that the introduction of dual-alphabet signs in Vukovar did not depend solely on the mayor but authorities at the state level.
