The latest twists and turns in the political soap opera that is the forming of the next Croatian government.
SDP president and Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanović met yesterday evening with Drago Prgomet, one of leaders of MOST. The meeting lasted more than an hour. After MOST earlier in the day officially proposed a grand coalition which was not acceptable to HDZ or SDP, Milanović is reportedly ready to offer to Prgomet and several people around him four to five ministries and the posts of Deputy Prime Minister and Speaker of the Parliament, said one close associate of the Prime Minister, reports Jutarnji List and Vecernji List on November 12, 2015.
SDP would like to cooperate with the whole MOST, and at first they said they would not talk individually with 19 MOST members of parliament. But, if MOST starts to fracture, they wanted to know if Prgomet has enough supporters within his party to support the government of Zoran Milanović. SDP believes that its coalition will agree cooperation with Prgomet and members of MOST close to him, and they hope that their support will be enough for SDP to form the government. They think they would need the support of at least eight MOST members of parliament.
“These are serious people, and if they want to take responsibility for the reforms, we will offer them ministries to implement these changes”, says a source from SDP. However, Milanović was reportedly not satisfied with the outcome of the talks. Prgomet did not want to talk about the positions in the government or about the possibility that he would try to persuade some of the people from MOST to cooperate with SDP.
This meeting between the head of SDP and Prgomet possibly confirms speculations about the rift within MOST. Yesterday afternoon, Prgomet did not come to the press conference organized by MOST party leader Božo Petrov at the party headquarters, after the first round of official talks with SDP and HDZ. Prgomet also did not come to a later meeting of the party National Council. MOST has sent to the media a statement that Prgomet will no longer be making any public statements, while Petrov dismissed a party spokeswoman who is reportedly a close associate of Prgomet. However, Božo Petrov insisted that there is no disunity within MOST and that the rumours were just political spin from other parties.
At the official meeting of SDP and its coalition partners with the leaders of MOST yesterday afternoon, SDP’s coalition was represented by Zoran Milanović, Deputy Prime Minister Branko Grčić, HNS President Vesna Pusić, and IDS president Boris Miletić, while MOST was represented by Božo Petrov, Drago Prgomet and economist Ivan Lovrinović.
MOST’s proposal was to form a government which would include three sides: SDP and its coalition, HDZ and its coalition, and MOST who would also propose the new prime minister. Milanović reportedly did not give an answer to such proposal, but had several questions about how such government would be able to function. The impression was that with its proposal MOST tried to overcome its internal differences. However, if HDZ and SDP wanted to form a grand coalition, the question is why would they even need MOST in the first place.
HDZ President Tomislav Karamarko said that MOST’s idea of a government of national unity is not realistic because that “would include SDP, which for four years did not do anything and has actually economically ruined the country. The government of national unity is not realistic for the simple reason that reforms can be carried out together by HDZ and MOST. How could we include those who have economically ruined the country. That is a contradiction”, Karamarko told reporters after talks with representatives of MOST. He also expressed doubt that SDP would agree with the idea of forming a government of national unity.
“We are wasting our time because our program needs to be implemented and that is what we have offered to MOST”, he said. “I am only interested in programs. Now let us see if we can implement them, and then we will find the people to do it. I say that when I become the prime minister-designate, the government will be expert and professional and everyone will be able to participate in it, provided they are experts and want a success for Croatia”, Karamarko concluded.
