Fokus Party loses its only seat in parliament

As of Saturday, Fokus is no longer a parliamentary party, nor does it have its own Club of Representatives in the Zagreb County Assembly. This comes after the party's only Member of Parliament and four of its six members of the Zagreb County Assembly parted ways with the party.

As suspected in the media the Fokus Party’s sole member of Croatian Parliament, Dario Zurovec, has parted ways with the party. Joining Zurovec in leaving Fokus are four of the party’s six members of the Zagreb County Assembly. They held a press conference on St. Mark’s Square today to address their reasons for leaving the party.

"There were many reasons, there were also some disagreements from before. Personally I think that every party should have a true meritocracy to see who contributed how much, who brought how many votes, and to in this was identify a viable method of functioning. But look, people are people. Sometimes one shouldn't take into account some kind of personal animosity or other things, but in politics you should. So I would say that this was also a reason," Zurovec said.

Dugo Selo Mayor Nenad Panian went on to further outline their falling out with party president Davor Nađi: "I cannot be a slave to the narcissism of individuals who do not appreciate the success of those who are successful. While we were walking around ministries, construction sites and enduring insults, they were scheming behind our backs. That's their problem. Mr. Zurovec and I are truly sorry for those party members that we spent the last four years recruiting. Unfortunately, we can see now that it was all in vain."

Later in the day party president Nađi, who has already announced that he will not run for re-election as party president, responded to the accusations from his former party colleagues, especially those made by Dario Zurovec: "All of us and the entire public has known for months now that this is about him becoming a token member of the HDZ. And all the accusations he has levied against me and the Fokus Party are in the function of a smoke screen to hide this. One example is that he was blocked in replacing the party president. I have to remind the public, and obviously him as well, that I am not running for party president."

Source: HRT