ZAGREB, May 5, 2020 – Prime Minister and HDZ party leader Andrej Plenković said on Monday that his party was not afraid that it would lose voters to right-wing parties that have been gathering around Homeland Movement leader Miroslav Škoro.
Addressing reporters ahead of a session of the HDZ leadership, Plenković said that regardless of when the parliamentary elections would be held, the HDZ would win them.
Plenković would not comment on a session of the HDZ branch in Zagreb, which was expected to meet on Monday evening to discuss cooperation with Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandić.
Plenković recalled that an agreement had been reached by the coalition partners in the Zagreb City Assembly to hold the next assembly session via video link.
Plenković does not believe that the latest developments signal a crisis in relations between the coalition partners in Zagreb and believes that an agreement should be reached.
HDZ City Assembly member Ivan Ćelić said after today’s session of the party branch in Zagreb that City Assembly chair Drago Prgomet of the HDZ, who had announced that the session would focus on the coalition with Bandić’s party, excused himself so the matter was not discussed.
The bone of contention between the HDZ and Bandić is the decision to hold the City Assembly session online, which Mayor Bandić has refused.
Prgomet said Bandić’s move was an act of belittling the HDZ and the City Assembly, which was why he announced that the HDZ’s cooperation with Bandić’s party in Zagreb would be reconsidered.
Ćelić said that it was still not known in what format the City Assembly session would be held but that the HDZ wanted it to be held online to help prevent the spreading of the coronavirus.
Reporters asked HDZ political secretary Ante Sanader if he expected Plenković to put forward a concrete date for parliamentary elections at the party leadership’s meeting today, to which Sanader said that they had not discussed the matter and that it was not on the agenda of the meeting.
Asked by reporters if the ruling majority in the national parliament had enough hands to dissolve the parliament, Sanader said that they had not discussed the matter with their coalition partners but that he was confident they would have enough hands when the time comes and that the Opposition, too, would vote in favour of dissolving the parliament.
More HDz news can be found in the Politics section.
