ZAGREB, March 2, 2018 – Social Democratic Party (SDP) Vice President Zlatko Komadina said on Friday that the opposition would probably fail to muster the votes of at least 76 lawmakers in the 151-seat parliament to dismiss Deputy Prime Minster and Economy Minister Martina Dalić.
A no-confidence vote against Dalić, whom the opposition finds to be responsible for the latest developments surrounding the private debt-laden Agrokor Group, is likely to be tabled in the parliament next week.
“There will probably not be enough votes to dismiss Dalić. Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, of course, will not sack his first associate. Sometime the purpose of an initiative for a no-confidence vote is not the dismissal (of an office-holder) but raising some topics,” Komadina told the commercial N1 television broadcaster.
A vote of no confidence in the government, one of its members or the PM, can be initiated if at least one-fifth of all MPs, i.e. 31, sign a motion to that end. The motion is then immediately put on parliament’s agenda. The government has eight days to take a position and the vote in parliament must be held within 30 days. At least 76 votes are required for a no-confidence vote to pass.
In the meantime, a few Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) officials and cabinet ministers have expressed confidence that the opposition’s motion against Dalić (HDZ) won’t pass.
While the motion will probably fail, a more interesting issue is whether there will be 76 votes against. If not, Dalić will remain a minister, but the government’s position will be destabilised.
Last time the Opposition seriously demanded the dismissal of a cabinet minister was in May 2017, when Finance Minister Zdravko Marić survived a vote of no confidence in the 151-seat parliament. Seventy-five lawmakers voted for the dismissal of the minister whom they accused of a conflict of interest in connection with Agrokor, and the same number voted against the motion, with one lawmaker abstaining. The SDP, which initiated the vote, failed to muster the 76 votes needed to dismiss Marić, but the ruling coalition collapsed and HDZ-MOST coalition government was replaced with the current HDZ-HNS cabinet.
