Despite this morning’s reports, Minister without Portfolio Goran Marić will remain in the cabinet and get his separate ministry.
In the early afternoon, the government has unofficially denied the information that Minister without Portfolio Goran Marić has resigned. The news of the Marić’s resignation was published this morning by Jutarnji List, which explained that Marić had decided to resign since he would not get his own ministry. According to the latest information, Marić will get a separate ministry and will no longer be Minister without Portfolio. If this information proves correct, Plenković’s government will have 20 ministries, which is the same as the last two governments, although one of the pre-election promises was that the number of ministries would be reduced, reports Novi List on October 25, 2016.
Jutarnji List had reported that Marić had decided to resign after last night’s two-hour meeting with Prime Minister Andrej Plenković. The reason was that without a clear portfolio he did not want to be in the cabinet and that he wanted to return to Parliament. According to reports, Marić wants to head the Ministry of State Property Management.
This morning, a meeting of all members of the cabinet took place in the government building, and Goran Marić was present.
Earlier today, Speaker of Parliament and MOST president Božo Petrov arrived in the government building and said that he came to have a meeting with Prime Minister Plenković. Asked if he knew anything about that Marić’s resignation, he said: “I do not know anything about it.” He gave a similar statement after the meeting. Various ministers who came to the government building also told journalists that they did not know anything about Marić’s resignation.
Petrov also commented on media reports that leading positions in public companies would be distributed according to the model – four positions to HDZ, one position to MOST. He said that MOST would advocate for public competitions for such positions, adding that the ruling majority has still not discussed the issue. Talking about today’s meeting of the Presidency of the Parliament, Petrov said they would discuss current events and, among other issues, talk about the code of ethics for members of Parliament.
Asked if there would be any changes to parliamentary rules of procedure, Petrov said that they would first focus of the code of ethics. He added there were some who believed that rules of procedure should also be amended, but that he would first listen to proposals of MPs and then decide.
