The negotiations continue, as a deadline approaches.
HDZ president Tomislav Karamarko and MOST leader Božo Petrov met yesterday afternoon for an hour and discussed the process of forming the new Croatian government, reports Vecernji List on January 12, 2016.
“Today we made a schedule of everything that will be done in the next week. We have talked about the principles that will be included in the reform treaty and how we will propose candidates for ministers. It is important to agree on these issues. Yesterday, we had a short meeting with Mr. Orešković. After the Patriotic Coalition and MOST agree on the names of potential ministers, these candidates will start meeting with the Prime Minister-designate Orešković”, said Petrov after the meeting. He added that MOST has defined a list of priorities which will be offered to the Patriotic Coalition.
“We are not going to announce the names of potential candidates, but just those which will be agreed together with the Patriotic Coalition and Mr. Orešković. We have decided to adopt the ‘2+1 principle’, which means that two names will be offered to the future PM, and if neither of these two people are acceptable, then we will give him a third candidate”, said Petrov, adding that they have not yet decided how many deputy prime ministers will the future government have. “As far as goals of the new government are concerned, it is important to choose five key points that will be implemented in the next four years. Also, there will be three to four key points for the first six months.”
Petrov added that he believed that everything will be done in time and that the Prime Minister-designate will not have to ask the President for additional 30 days to form the government. “I do not foresee any problems, since we are going to propose expert people, but even if something happens, I do not think we would have to prolong the deadline”, said Petrov.
HDZ president Tomislav Karamarko said that cooperation with MOST was “flexible”. “Six ministries will go to MOST and everything else to the Patriotic Coalition. Why is our cooperation flexible? Because, if there is our candidate who might be better in a ministry which belongs to MOST or vice versa, we can be flexible with the division of ministries”, said Karamarko.
“I believe we will know by the end of the week the names of all ministers, so that the Parliament can confirm the new government within twenty days”, concluded Karamarko.
Speaker of the Parliament Željko Reiner announced that the next session of the Parliament, instead of 18 January, will start on 20 January because it is a custom that the Parliament begins its sessions on Wednesdays. “We will convene to elect various parliamentary committees and other bodies. I hope that by Friday, 22 January, we will have the new government confirmed”, said Reiner.
