Of politics and coalitions.
It was sometime in late July. ORaH had just presented its collection of special party perfumes. President of the party Mirela Holy that very day received a phone call by SDP vice-president and minister of entrepreneurship and crafts Gordan Maras. He wanted to know where he could buy the perfumes. “Everything started as a joke. And then he directly told me we should enter the Kukuriku coalition. He told me ORaH could get eight seats in the parliament”, said Mirela Holy to Slobodna Dalmacija on August 20, 2015.
Holy has rejected the generous offer, as well as his arguments that, if it doesn’t enter the coalition, ORaH will bring HDZ to power. SDP thinking is as follows: HDZ has already brought together a broad coalition of eight parties and has thus avoided losing votes on the right. However, some parties of the left and centre-left will take away a large number of votes from SDP’s coalition. Disappointed voters of Social Democrats represent a good deal of the electorate which could vote for ORaH and the Forward Croatia Party of former president Ivo Josipović. Some of the sympathizers of Živi Zid once voted for SDP, while some of Reformists of Radimir Čačić used to vote for HNS. If it could get back some of these votes, SDP-led coalition would have a much better chance to beat HDZ.
“They have closed the ranks on the right, while on the left, because of personal animosities, everyone is looking just for themselves. ORaH may not pass the electoral threshold, but will win some votes and these votes will be in vain. However, if they were on our side, we could overtake HDZ and prevent them from ruining Croatia in the next four years”, explained a member of the SDP Presidency talking about reasons why the Social Democrats are willing to give Mirela Holy a lot of seats for joining the coalition, despite the fact that polls show a steady decline of OraH’s popularity. SDP believes that a deal with Holy would enable them to beat HDZ and win the parliamentary elections.
SDP vice-president Gordan Maras did not confirm that Mirela Holy was indeed offered eight seats. “No comment”, he said briefly. Some ministers claim that Maras is a major advocate of wide coalition of leftist parties, and that prime minister Zoran Milanović certainly knows about all the offers given to potential partners.
“Politics is not mathematics. Our voters do not support us so that we would sell ourselves. They do it because we offer different policies and different programs in comparison to SDP. We will not enter any coalition, and as far as HDZ is concerned, they will be returned to power by SDP’s decisions while in government, and not by any opposition party”, said Holy.
