The political negotiations continue, more than a month after the election.
Most will meet today at 2 pm in Šibenik with leaders of HDZ’s Patriotic Coalition, and at 3 pm in Zagreb with representatives of SDP’s Croatia Is Growing coalition. In Šibenik, MOST will be represented by Ines Strenja Linić, Ivan Kovačić and Božo Petrov. In Zagreb, SDP president Milanović will send ministers Siniša Hajdaš Dončić and Branko Grčić to negotiate as his representatives with MOST, which announced that the meetings will take place at the request of the two coalitions, reports Index.hr, Vecernji List and Jutarnji List on December 9, 2015.
Both coalitions have asked for the meetings to discuss MOST’s proposals which were presented to them at the meeting on Monday. At that time, MOST called for a joint government and suggested that the next prime minister should be a non-partisan candidate.
HRID party, led by former member of MOST Drago Prgomet, will meet this afternoon to determine the next steps and set the guidelines for further negotiations. At the meeting, their three members of parliament will present details of their consultations with Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović which were held on Monday. According to unofficial sources, Prgomet has no intention of being in the opposition, and wants to take part in the government. He is ready to do everything he can to prevent new elections being held. There is speculation that some current members of MOST are ready to support him. Therefore, it was not surprising to hear certain rumours from SDP that Prgomet would be the best candidate for speaker of the Parliament.
The election of the speaker is the main goal of SDP and the only way to postpone the option of new elections being held for at least some time, and some believe that Prgomet could even receive support from some MPs from HDZ and MOST.
HDZ president Tomislav Karamarko will meet today in Šibenik with Božo Petrov and representatives of MOST in order to obtain further clarifications after the meeting on Monday. Furthermore, Karamarko will propose to Most a “less utopian solution” than MOST’s idea about joint government between SDP, HDZ and MOST. The details of the proposal are unknown, but unofficial sources claim that HDZ’s proposal could be acceptable to MOST. While Zoran Milanović made it clear that the prime minister cannot be a non-partisan person, Karamarko could possibly offer a non-partisan person for the post of prime minister. Reportedly, there are four possible names being mentioned at this moment.
“Creating a parliamentary majority is now the most important imperative”, Karamarko said, adding that he could not agree with Zoran Milanović that caretaker government could continue indefinitely. “I think it would be counterproductive to the interests of Croatian citizens.”
HDZ feels that they could make a deal with MOST now that Croatia Is Growing coalition has reportedly rejected MOST’s proposals. But, some members of HDZ are not convinced. “I think that the president will announce new elections in mid-January and appoint a non-partisan interim government”, a senior member of HDZ said. He also pointed out that he was not sure that MOST would remain unified. “There are only eight or nine or, in the best case, ten members of MOST ready to go with Petrov to HDZ. There used to be more of them, but that has changed now. It will not be enough for HDZ and that is why I believe that this option will not work, even with a new candidate for prime minister”, a source said. He added that, in his opinion, Zoran Milanović has better chances to form the government if MOST were to split.
