In the meantime parties do what they do best – hold meeting after meeting.
While we are all witnessing the post election saga, listening to 1001 interpretation of the Constitution, the “will they go left, will they go right” scenario with MOST and their sleep inducing Utopian mantra “we want a government comprised of all parliamentary parties and experts”, voters seem to be losing patience. Over a month after the elections we are nowhere near forming a government and according to the new polls conducted by Ipsos Puls for Nova TV, 65,5% of people believe Božo Petrov’s (MOST) proposal cannot be enforced as opposed to 20,3% of them who believe it is possible to put his plan into action. Furthermore 54,8% believe new elections are imminent, 28% of them want new elections.
While people are being surveyed, all three parties continue with their daily meetings before the next round of consultations scheduled by President Grabar Kitarović for the beginning of next week. Patriotic coalition is meeting with MOST representatives lead by Božo Petrov in Šibenik on December 9, 2015 at 2PM while Croatia is Growing coalition is meeting with MOST representatives an hour later in Zagreb (without Petrov).
First members of SDP’s coalition have stepped forward on Tuesday stating that they find MOST’s proposal unacceptable. Ivan Vrdoljak from HNS commented: “The time has come to share our views and opinions as clearly as possible. HNS is against the grand coalition suggested by Božo Petrov and HNS will not be a part of such government. We will be a constructive opposition because this kind of a coalition is against the will of the voters. This kind of coalition will not have an opposition and that takes us back to the socialist times and a one party system. HNS will not participate in a one party system”.
Other Croatia is Growing coalition members shared similar views. Nansi Tirelli from the Labour party commented:”We don’t want a coalition with HDZ. We are a left option and any kind of a coalition with HDZ is just out of the question!.
Members of SDP are still not commenting on the whole situation, instead they are waiting for the general party assembly on Saturday. We’re not holding our breath for any big announcements after the assembly either.
According to Index.hr, political analysts all agree new elections are the most likely outcome of this political game of chicken. Žarko Puhovski stated “It was just a matter of who will be the first to find the courage to say no to MOST. SDP believes MOST is closer to HDZ and has been from the beginning while their own coalition is nor far from the required 76 parliament members. They could somehow stretch it to 76 but HDZ cannot get close to that number without every elected parliament member from MOST. Their only option is either a coalition with MOST or new elections. SDP can still hope and that’s why they can say they are against the grand coalition. Expect tougher consultations with the President next week”.
On the other hand, Anđelko Milardović believes SDP’s coalition potential is weakening but since bot HDZ and SDP find MOST’s proposal unacceptable, we can expect new elections.
Whichever way you choose to look at it, this situation will not be resolved any time soon, election or no election. And while we wait for the final decision to be made by the two largest parties, we will all have to endure our fair share of what the Facebook community is calling MOSTurbation. No offence.
