FRANJO TUDJMAN'S SON
Late President's Family Wants to Remove Premier
Miroslav Tudjman, son of late Croatian President Franjo Tudjman, started his campaign in Australia, just as his father did.
Ivona Barić
M.Č. / Photo: archive
With the support of his family, people who share his political views and former intelligence agents, Miroslav Tudjman, son of late President Franjo Tudjman, will try to set in motion a blow to Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) President, Prime Minister Ivo Sanader. The ultimate goal of Tudjman’s attempt is to bring Sanader down from his position as HDZ leader, as sources well informed on political circles revealed to newspaper Nacional.
A team led by Tudjman’s eldest son has revealed that it was really a group of HDZ members whose influence in society was left on the sidelines as the Croatian political scene matured, who were planning to bring the Prime Minister down.
Tudjman’s group is embittered by Sanader’s relationship with the Hague Tribunal and they are utterly convinced that the Prime Minister is leading HDZ to its demise. Miroslav Tudjman believes that a respectable number of HDZ members agree with them and that they may join them in the fight against Sanader if the right conditions are created.
Start of the campaign among Croatian right wingers in Australia
Miroslav Tudjman started his campaign in Australia, just as his father did before the breakup of Yugoslavia, and promoted his new book, “Vrijeme krivokletnika” (Time of Perjurers) there in August.
People close to the emigrant circles in Australia say that Tudjman appeared exclusively in the circles of hardline right wing emigrants. At a Croatian centre called “Ante Gotovina” (after the Croatian general indicted for war crimes), a special dinner was organized in his honour and several hundred reputable emigrants from all over Australia were invited to attend.
Once Tudjman had finished his presentation, the emigrants asked him if he would run for Croatian president and offered him financial support, to which he responded that it was still too early for such a move, but said that he would consider the idea.
Tudjman collecting election points by targeting Mesic and HDZ
In his book, Tudjman primarily targets President Stjepan Mesic and his testimony in the Hague, saying that Mesic used his testimony to return to the political scene, after which he let the public see the transcripts of Franjo Tudjman’s conversations with his closest associates, which the latter had taped on a regular basis.
However, in the introduction, Tudjman also targets HDZ, saying that he wrote the book because he was not satisfied with the party’s treatment of his father and his political legacy. Nevertheless, Tudjman is not as directly critical of HDZ as he is of Mesic.
Tudjman is hiding transcripts of conversations about covering up war crimes in Bosnia
Tudjman, however, fails to mention that, in the year 2000, he personally took some interesting transcripts of his father’s conversations at the Office of the President. The transcripts in question, which reveal the background of the crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina, were at one point requested by Hague investigators, but Tudjman has not handed them over to Croatian authorities to this day, writes Nacional.
One may also conclude that Miroslav Tudjman and his family would certainly not start a presidential campaign if they did not count on the support of some members of HDZ, but which HDZ members may be inclined to lend support to Miroslav Tudjman is a question without an answer today.
Published: September 11, 2007 20:43h
Post je objavljen 11.09.2007. u 23:04 sati.