The November 8 marathon is almost over. Ministers to be named by tomorrow at the latest.
Croatian Prime Minister-designate Tihomir Orešković, HDZ president Tomislav Karamarko and MOST leader Božo Petrov met yesterday evening for final discussions about the candidates for ministerial posts in the new government. It is expected that the final agreement will be made later today. Orešković should on Friday present to the Parliament members of his government, and according to statements from MOST and the Patriotic Coalition, the names of new ministers should be known by Thursday afternoon at the latest, reports Index.hr and Novilist on January 20, 2016.
The most likely candidate for finance minister is Zdravko Marić, deputy to the former finance minister Ivan Šuker who has been working for the last few years in the management of Agrokor, one of the largest Croatian companies. Unofficial sources claim that there are some problems with the appointment of Ante Ćorušić as the new health minister, and also that many veterans’ associations do not support Mijo Crnoja as the new veteran affairs minister.
Until 2012, Zdravko Marić was state secretary in the Finance Ministry, and was discharged after the then government abolished the post. He then began working for Agrokor, where he worked as a member of the strategy and capital markets teams. From 2001 to 2006, he worked at the Economic Institute. He entered the Finance Ministry as the assistant minister for macroeconomic analysis and planning. In early 2008, when he was just 30 years old, he became the youngest state secretary in the government.
President of HDZ Health Commission Ante Ćorušić is much better known to the Croatian public, especially because of the his many controversial statements which often appear on the front pages of newspapers. He recently said that it was good for the country that Tihomir Orešković is a “practicing Catholic”, he is opposed to sex education and medically assisted reproduction techniques, and argues that rich people who can pay more have a right to better health care.
However, there is also one additional procedural problem for the incoming government. Croatian President Kolinda Grabar Kitarović named Orešković as the Prime Minister-designate on 23 December. Croatian Constitution says that “if government is not formed within 30 days, the President may extend the deadline for additional 30 days”. That means that Orešković’s deadline to form the government expires on Friday at midnight.
Obviously bearing this requirement in mind, new Speaker of Parliament Željko Reiner proposed this week that the debate on new government should include only representatives of parties but not individual members of parliament, in order to avoid the possibility that the session could be extended into Saturday and in that way jeopardize the constitutionality of the entire procedure. However, opposition rejected his proposal so it is quite likely that the parliamentary session could last after midnight.
Professor of constitutional law Mato Palić believes that, if debate is extended after midnight, the Parliament would not be able to vote on the new government. “In that case, the President would have to issue a new decision giving PM-designate additional 30 days to form the government. If the Parliament would confirm Orešković’s government after midnight without such decision, that would be unconstitutional and the Constitutional Court could annul it.”
However, there are other law experts who argue that even if the session drags on until after midnight, nothing special would happen since the deadline is valid just for the submission of the proposal of new ministers and not for the confirmation of the proposal by the Parliament.
