Recess was called after only 20 minutes since the Prliemant Speaker was not elected
First attempt to constitute the Croatian parliament failed on December 3, 2015, since there was no parliamentary majority for the first time in Croatian history. First session lasted only 20 minutes before a recess was called.
Inaugural parliament assembly started at 10 AM but the Parliament was not inaugurated since a new Speaker was not elected. Only one candidate was suggested, Robert Podolnjak from MOST who had the support of 55 elected parliament members, including SDP, but he revoked his candidature after HDZ failed to support him.
Even though some Croatian media speculated SDP might ask for a secret vote in order to break up MOST and push their own candidate, that did not happen and they stuck to what was agreed with MOST yesterday and supported Podolnjak.
So, what happens now?
According to Jutarnji List, Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia commented the new situation stating that, should no one produce the required 76 signature in the second round of consultations which are scheduled for December 7, 2015, a third round of consultations will be scheduled around Christmas.
“We expect things to be clearer after the second round of consultations on December 7. President will say what her plans are after the second round of consultations – President’s spokesperson Luka Đurić commented.
When asked whether the President is thinking of new elections before she gives anyone a mandate to try and form a government and whether that is in accordance with the Croatian Constitution, Đurić did not give a concrete answer: “Let’s wait for the second round of consultations” and once again he repeated “President will give the mandate only when she has clear proof that someone has the majority”.
Even Vladimir Šeks, one of the creators of the Croatian Constitution admitted that the constitution does not define a clear solution for the situation we are currently in. Until now, one political option always managed to collect the required number of signatures, and now for the first time we may not get a mandate delegate so it is unclear when new elections should be announced. According to the Constitution, deadlines for new elections start only when a mandate delegate is selected, but it doesn’t determine what happens when a mandate delegate cannot be selected even after several rounds of consultations.
