HDZ president Karamarko wants to demonstrate that parliamentary majority still exists.
Instead of Friday as usual, the voting session in Parliament will take place as early as Wednesday this week. The Patriotic Coalition and MOST want to demonstrate that they still have a majority in Parliament. This was decided at yesterday’s meeting of HDZ leadership by party president and First Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Karamarko, reports Večernji List on May 17, 2016.
Karamarko was angered by the fact that the parliamentary majority led by HDZ had been unable for three weeks to muster a quorum needed for voting, which opened the question of whether the parliamentary majority even existed anymore. Therefore, Karamarko will personally come on Wednesday morning first to a meeting of the HDZ Parliamentary Group, which will be followed by a voting session in Parliament.
According to reports from HDZ, voting will take place on Friday as well, with the ruling coalition wanting to demonstrate twice in one week that they have the majority. On Wednesday, about twenty reports and laws will be voted on, including the law on the abolition of office of former President Stjepan Mesić and the reduction in funding of political parties. MOST repeatedly protested due to the fact that these laws had not been adopted and openly announced that it was ready for early elections if the obstruction does not end. Also, Milijan Brkić, current general secretary and soon deputy president of HDZ, is expected to return to Parliament in the autumn in order to discipline party’s MPs.
In the meantime, Milan Bandić, who is trying to present himself as a leader of the parliamentary reshuffle initiative, continues to give statements that his Parliamentary Group would soon be expanded with additional MPs. He gave indications that one of the MPs who might join him was a current member of the opposition. Rumours are that it might be Tomislav Končevski, the new president of the Croatian Labour Party, which entered Parliament as part of the SDP-led Croatia Is Growing coalition.
“This is all just gossip. Labour Party will remain in the opposition”, said Končevski denying the rumours.
In the Patriotic Coalition, Croatian Peasants’ Party (HSS) is not satisfied with its position. “We demand that the Prime Minister comes to our next session of the Main Committee and to present the programme of the government. We want better communication with our coalition partners”, said Krešo Beljak, the new HSS president.
We might find out soon whether majority truly exists. SDP is expected to today officially file a motion for a no-confidence vote against First Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Karamarko due to the recent affair concerning business cooperation between his wife and a MOL consultant. For Karamarko to be removed from office, all opposition MPs and several MPs from MOST would have to vote in favour of such motion.
In addition to all of this, the Commission for Conflict of Interest Prevention will on Wednesday decide whether it will launch official proceedings against Karamarko due to a possible conflict of interest.
So, all in all, another interesting week in Croatian politics is ahead of us.
