Istria will not be Calabria or Sicily and will not be governed like a mafia

The commissioner of the Istrian SDP, Ada Damjanac, IDS MP Damir Kajin, who announced an independent candidacy for the Istrian prefect, and the president of the Istrian HSU, Radovan Cvek, announced at a joint press conference today in Pula that they will initiate changes in Istria through joint efforts.

The SDP in Istria wants to be a catalyst for change regarding the management of the County, and that is why we have decided to support MP Kajin as a candidate for the Istrian prefect,” said Ada Damjanac, with the support of the Istrian organization of the Croatian Pensioners’ Party (HSU) confirmed by its president Radovan Cvek, although, as he noted, the county committee of the HSU has not yet made a final decision.

Kajin stated that today’s joint appearance is not ‘the beginning, nor the end of the beginning, but the beginning of the beginning’ which he is convinced will yield ‘a new Istrian momentum or Istrian spring’.

– The discussions are open, we do not force anyone into anything, everyone has the right to choose and, those who are not present, can be without them. I am confident that we will win – said Kajin, adding that he wants to return power to the people and offer citizens a policy of equal opportunities rather than, as he said, ‘with one membership card you can do everything, and without it nothing.’

– Istria will not be Calabria or Sicily and will not be governed like a mafia – he emphasized.

We need to put an end to separatist wars with the Government for which the citizens of Istria voted. The Government has not turned its back on Istria, but rather, with that Government, he said, ‘Istria will resolve everything that Jakovčić could not with the HDZ prime ministers to whom he shamefully submitted’.

– There is no place for obstruction, sabotage, and malice – Kajin stated, adding that the best example of how to conduct politics was given by the current government which ‘did not react in any way to the sabotage by Ivan Jakovčić’. On the contrary, the budget for 2013 showed that it would not punish Istria but would value Istria’s participation in the state budget, said Kajin.

In response to a journalist’s question about whether today’s press conference officially highlighted his candidacy for prefect, Kajin said that it did not and that when he collects a sufficient number of signatures, he will submit his candidacy to the electoral commission.

When asked if he would return his parliamentary mandate to the IDS, Kajin emphasized that he is the bearer of that list, and that when he becomes prefect, he will return the mandate. “Who should I return the mandate to, Jakovčić? It is not his mandate,” said Kajin, adding that if he is expelled from the party, he has no intention of returning the mandate to the IDS.

He stated that his status in the IDS should be asked of the leaders of that party, and in response to journalists’ questions about how to present him in their reports, he said, “as an independent candidate and still a member of the IDS”.

– This broad all-Istrian coalition guarantees a better future for Istria, and what we have started together with the citizens is not a battle for power, but a battle for Istria – Kajin emphasized and stated that Istria will be different after the local elections than it has been so far. There is room for everyone, for the IDS, for the SDP, for the HNS, for the HSU, for Ladonja and independents, and even for the HDZ, he said.