Yet one more political party for Croatia, as MOST leaders defends the protracted negotiations.
President of MOST Božo Petrov believes that his former party member Drago Prgomet will fail to win over a single member of parliament from MOST for the new party he will found. “We have shown during the last few weeks that we are stable. I am sorry for what is happening, but that is the decision by Mr. Prgomet. We wish him all the luck. This is the path that he has chosen”, Petrov said, reports Vecernji List, Jutarnji List and 24Sata.hr on November 23, 2015.
MOST leadership met yesterday to prepare strategy for further negotiations with HDZ and SDP. They have discussed negotiating strategies for education, tax and financial system, and monetary policy. Petrov claims that the atmosphere at the meeting was great. The negotiations will last for about a week, followed by political discussions. He hopes to complete the talks in two to three weeks, but everything depends on HDZ and SDP. He said that he hoped that HDZ and SDP would accept their offer and agree to form a joint reform government that would perhaps last for only two years. He added that some of the more serious reforms required two-thirds majority in parliament.
Petrov also commented on the statements in some media and by some analysts who accuse MOST of prolonging the negotiations. “In all serious countries, government is never formed in less than 30 days. There is almost a persecution of MOST going on. They started saying that we are amateurs and dilettantes who procrastinate and who cannot make a decision. We have shown that we know very well what we are doing”, Petrov concluded.
Drago Prgomet said yesterday evening that he intends to turn his HRID association into a political party. Referring to recent events in MOST, Prgomet said that the citizens should be clearly told what MOST as a political platform is, who is behind it, and that the National Council is just an advisory body which should not be able to decide on issues such as who will form the next government. “That can only be done by the 19 elected members of parliament. Citizens gave them their confidence, they have to decide, not some other people”, Prgomet added.
He said that HRID as a political party will continue to operate within the MOST platform, and announced that all the funds that his new party will receive due to the fact that it will be represented in the parliament will be donated to charity. He did not want to talk about which elected members of parliament from MOST might join his new political party.
It is expected that on Monday the State Election Commission will announce the final election results. This would mean that the Parliament should begin its first session no later than 14 December. At the first session, the speaker of the parliament should be elected and new members should take the oath of office. The election of the speaker requires a majority of all deputies present. Although some speculate that failure to elect a new speaker would mean new elections, Peđa Grbin, who was the chairman of the Procedure Committee in last Parliament, said that was not the case. “The president can reconvene another session of Parliament, that is not a reason for new elections”, Grbin explained.
Another option is for the Parliament to elect the speaker by a narrow majority. That would be beneficial to new members of parliament, regardless of potential new elections. Even if a new government is not formed and the parliament is dissolved soon afterwards, all 151 members of parliament would start receiving full pay for six months and half pay for additional six months.
