The latest from the Croatian political soap opera.
Ružica Vukovac, a member of MOST, told reporters during a meeting of the National Council and its members of parliament yesterday that key decisions can only be reached next week, after HDZ and SDP send their written comments on the proposed reforms. “On Monday, we expect to receive their replies. If SDP and HDZ give some better proposals, we are absolutely ready to accept them”, Vukovac said, reports Vecernji List on November 29, 2015.
When asked how many members of parliament MOST currently has, and whether the two MPs from HRID will be part of MOST or HRID parliamentary party, Vukovac said that the issue was not on the agenda of Saturday’s meeting. “They will themselves decide what they will do, I think they can wait until Tuesday to decide.” Vukovac added that they did not discuss the proposal by SDP president Zoran Milanović for Božo Petrov to become speaker of the Parliament. “We are certainly thankful to Mr. Milanović on his proposal, because for us it means that he accepts us as a party which deserves such high office”, Vukovac added.
Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović on Thursday announced that the first sitting of the Parliament will be convened on 3 December, and that the second round of consultations about forming a new government will take place on 7 December. If the two main coalitions fail to gather the support of at least 76 MPs by then, the President will schedule the third round of consultations before Christmas. If the new parliamentary majority is still not clear by then, the President could simply conclude that no one is able to form a government and call early elections.
In that case, the Constitution says that the President would appoint a temporary non-party government and call early elections. With her decision that the first sitting of the Parliament will take place on 3 December, although the final deadline was 13 December, the president wanted to speed up the process of party consultations. For the Parliament to be constituted, members must elect the speaker, which requires a simple majority of MPs present at the meeting. It is likely that all sides will intensify their negotiations and try to come to Parliament with maximum support of members.
Although there were some unofficial information that the president would give the mandate to form a government to a party which won the greatest number of seats in parliament, that would not be in accordance with the Constitution, which stipulates that the prime minister-designate has to enjoy the support of the majority of elected representatives. HDZ, the party which nominated Grabar-Kitarović as its presidential candidate, is disappointed that as relative winners they did not get the mandate to form a government. HDZ believes that it would be more comfortable to negotiate with other parties with the official mandate. On the other hand, they are satisfied that the President has scheduled the first sitting of the Parliament so soon, and expect that by 3 December a lot of things could be clearer and that the negotiations could end in their favour.
