After initial rounds of meetings, the two parties should start discussing the issue of allocations of ministries and the programme for the future government.
On Monday afternoon, HDZ and MOST will continue their talks on forming the new government and they are expected to finally conclude the first phase of negotiations, which covered the seven guarantees which MOST wants to implement as soon as possible, reports Večernji List on October 26, 2016.
The next round of negotiations will cover election manifestos of the two parties, which should represent the basis for the programme of the future government. In addition, HDZ and MOST will have to open discussions on the structure of government, allocation of ministries between them and personnel issues, which is obviously the most difficult phase of negotiations.
Since HDZ president Andrej Plenković announced that the government should be formed by mid-October, and that on Tuesday party consultations with President Kolinda Grabar Kitarović will commence, it is clear that HDZ and MOST should accelerate their negotiations, and not meet just once a week as they have done until now.
The State Election Commission will today announce official results of parliamentary elections, which means that the 20 days period in which Parliament should be constituted will start running. Plenković earlier announced that he intended to present his government to Parliament on its very first session. It is still not known whether Plenković will come to the President tomorrow with 76 signatures of support in order to officially become the Prime Minister-Designate, but since negotiations with MOST have not been concluded, it is difficult to expect that he would bring the signatures.
According to unofficial information, HDZ intends to offer MOST four ministries and the position of Deputy Prime Minister, and it can be expected that will be the starting position of HDZ in negotiations on the allocation of ministries. The final agreement will depend on the negotiations.
It is expected that HDZ will insists on the Economy Ministry, which was controlled by MOST in the previous government. On the other hand, it is ready to leave the Interior Ministry led by Minister Vlaho Orepić to MOST.
HDZ has 61 MPs in Parliament, while MOST had 13 seats after the elections, but in the meantime it has expanded its Parliamentary Group with one additional MP, who was elected as part of Živi Zid and has since left that party. There are rumours that it could soon further expand the number of its MPs, which would improve its negotiating position even more. It takes support of 76 MPs to form a government.
