Could Croatia have a new Prime Minister named later today?
Delegations of HDZ and SDP, led by party presidents Tomislav Karamarko and Zoran Milanović, met yesterday evening with MOST leader Božo Petrov and his colleagues at MOST headquarters in Zagreb. They discussed the issue of forming a new tripartite government, reports Index.hr, Jutarnji List and Vecernji List.
After the meeting, Milanović and Karamarko left without making a statement to journalists. Petrov said that the negotiations went well and that he expected everything to possibly be solved within the next 24 hours. “The meeting was positive. Tomorrow we will continue with the talks”, he added. Reporters asked him whether they can call him “prime minister”, but he replied “no”. He did not want to answer any additional questions.
Večernji List reports that MOST gave to the two major coalitions a document which should determine the level of readiness of both parties for trilateral co-operation. According to the document, all members of government and people nominated for other positions will be accepted only on the basis of consensus. MOST wants the next prime minister to be a non-partisan expert or representative of MOST, and all three parties participating in the government should have one deputy prime minister in the cabinet.
Since neither SDP nor HDZ last night wanted to sign the agreement without examining it in detail, they were given 24 hours to say what they think about it, with final decisions made by 7 pm today.
Jutarnji List reports that Alex Braun, an American election strategist and mastermind of SDP’s successful election campaign, visited Croatia last Friday. He was reportedly just passing through Zagreb and went to an informal meeting with SDP general secretary Igor Dragovan. The American played perhaps the decisive role in saving Milanović’s coalition, which won the same number of seats as HDZ, although earlier this year it was facing a complete electoral annihilation. His arrival in Zagreb, and a number of other events in the last few weeks show that SDP believes new elections are at least possible.
SDP-led Croatia Is Growing coalition is currently focused on tripartite negotiations with MOST and HDZ, but at the same time they are preparing in case the attempts to form a government fail and that Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović decides to call new elections.
