MOST’s marathon talks continue, as the party say that they will have a joint government with HDZ and SDP, or new elections.
MOST will today continue its discussions with HDZ and SDP. The meeting with SDP will take place at 1 pm, which will be followed by the meeting with HDZ at 3 pm. It is still not known which side MOST could support in forming a government, and in the last few days some of the MOST representatives have hinted that new elections are quite possible. Before the meetings with other parties, MOST will hold a meeting of its National Council at 10 am, reports Index.hr and Vecernji List on December 2, 2015.
“We will not support neither HDZ nor SDP. We will all together have a joint government and implement reforms or we will have new elections. Since neither Milanović nor Karamarko want new elections, because they can see their party ratings, I hope we will be able to reach an agreement about a joint government. We will not give our support to them individually”, MOST spokesman Nikola Grmoja said yesterday, adding that new elections would give MOST 35 seats in parliament.
Grmoja commented on the statement by HDZ president Tomislav Karamarko who said yesterday that he will become prime minister-designate, while Željko Reiner would be HDZ’s candidate for speaker of the parliament. “If they are unacceptable to SDP, then they are unacceptable to us as well, because we demand government which would include all three sides”, Grmoja said. “Everything will be clearer in the next few days. We will bring Milanović and Karamarko to the same table, but we will first see what happens at the first sitting of the new Parliament on Thursday”, Grmoja concluded.
It is expected that SDP president and current Prime Minister Zoran Milanović will today for the first time take part at a meeting with MOST. Leaders of MOST and SDP Božo Petrov and Zoran Milanović have met only once before, during a short meeting three days after the parliamentary elections.
HDZ President Tomislav Karamarko said yesterday that it was too early to say whether he would be ready to relinquish the potential position of prime minister-designate. “I think it is reasonable that we as relative winners of these elections have the right to apply for certain positions in government. That is our obligation towards the party and the voters”, he said. Karamarko added that he and MOST leader Božo Petrov did not agree anything and that their negotiations are transparent. “Our negotiations and cooperation are very transparent. Everything is happening in front of cameras.” Asked if HDZ already has the support of Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandić and his two members of parliament, Karamarko briefly replied that the question should be answered by Bandić.
Karamarko also denied that HDZ has convinced one of the Serbian minority representatives to leave his party. “If Milorad Pupovac, president of their party, thinks that Milanović was a good prime minister, why would other members of his ethnic minority have to share that opinion?”, Karamarko asked.
