Croatian Ruling Party Axes PM's Conservative Opponents

A meeting of the HDZ's presidency and National Council on Monday decided that the party's political secretary, Davor Ivo Stier and its international relations secretary, Miro Kovac, will be removed from their senior positions after a series of disputes within the centre-right ruling party.

After the session, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic explained: "The most important principle in politics is trust."

Plenkovic told TV reporters that the degree of trust between him and Kovac was insufficient and that his cooperation with Stier was not as intensive and constructive as it had been about a year and a half ago before Stier left the cabinet against the premier's wishes.

Stier and Kovac have come out in favour of a more conservative orientation for the ruling party.

They were also among those within the HDZ who did not support Croatia's ratification of the 'Istanbul Convention' to combat violence against women and domestic violence, which sparked protests by conservatives in the country.

Stier criticised the current HDZ leadership on May 26 in a speech to 5,000 party members at a large party convention, where his comments were met with loud applause.

Stier insisted that after being removed he will work even harder for the party, and "against clientelism and crony capitalism".

Asked if he has the ambition to become the HDZ's president, Stier left his options open: "I do not exclude any possibility, but we will decide when the time comes," he said.

When Plenkovic was asked if he is afraid that Stier and Kovac might move to destroy the HDZ-led coalition's thin majority in the 151-seat parliament, the Prime Minister replied that he fears "absolutely nothing".

However, opposition Social Democratic Party MP Josko Klisovic...