CAFÉ EUROPE - Ending the age of heroes O

At the gathering Sanader proposed “to open the party towards the international community, to regain a [positive] image within the international community and to become a member of the EPP, the European People’s Party.” He also suggested opening the party towards other parties in Croatia: “in the 90s we were too self- centred. [...] Finally, I judged him to be a man with the decisiveness to transform the HDZ.” www.esiweb.org/cafe-europe Café Europe 5 In reality, the struggle over the soul of the HDZ had hardly begun. [...] On the eve of Tudjman’s death, the Economist called Pasalic “supposedly the second-most-powerful man in Croatia.” Worse still, Pasalic engineered the suppression of free media, in particular by plotting the (eventually unsuccessful) revocation of independent Radio 101’s broadcasting licence in 1996 and bringing the daily Vecernji List under control of a company close to Tudjman’s HDZ. [...] It does not guarantee avoiding institutional linkages with the countries of the region.” Nationalists interpreted the walkout of the HDZ as strong opposition; in fact, however, Sanader insisted that his real interest was Croatia’s full EU membership, and that he opposed the agreement because “it says nowhere that the objective of the agreement is Croatia’s full EU membership.” www.esiweb.org/cafe-. [...] The peaceful reintegration of the Eastern Slavonia region was behind us, and the defeat of the HDZ was www.esiweb.org/cafe-europe Café Europe 9 behind us, after January 2000 when the Social Democrats won the elections.