ZAGREB, July 12, 2019 – The parliamentary group of the opposition Social Democratic Party (SDP) on Friday began gathering signatures for a motion of no-confidence in Regional Development and EU Funds Minister Gabrijela Žalac, Agriculture Minister Tomislav Tolušić and State Assets Minister Goran Marić over their alleged involvement in corruption scandals, unofficial sources said.
A no-confidence motion requires the signatures of one fifth of MPs, or 31. If the necessary number of signatures are gathered, the motion will be formally submitted to parliament already next week, the sources said.
Such motions are debated no earlier than seven and no later than 30 days after being included on parliament’s agenda.
The head of the SDP parliamentary group, Arsen Bauk, said recently that of the seven motions for a vote of no-confidence in cabinet ministers filed so far, four had resulted in their resignations.
In the meantime, the parliamentary group of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) has unanimously supported Prime Minister Andrej Plenković’s proposal that Ivan Malenica, the Dean of Šibenik Polytechnic, succeed Lovro Kuščević as the Minister of Public Administration, the group’s chairman Branko Bačić told the press after their meeting on Friday morning.
Bačić said that they did not discuss changes for other ministerial positions. “It has been agreed that an extraordinary session of the Croatian parliament will be convened by the end of the month to decide on the appointment of new government ministers.”
The HDZ leadership has backed Plenković to propose a government reshuffle after analysing the work of all government ministries.
“Today we did not discuss the number of ministers who would be replaced. The prime minister has our support to make such a proposal to the party’s leadership and coalition partners, after which our group will confirm the necessary number of ministers,” Bačić said.
Asked if State Assets Minister Goran Marić still enjoyed the trust of the party’s leadership after all the scandals reported by the media, Bačić repeated that the HDZ leadership had expressed their support for the prime minister to decide which ministries would be reshuffled. He said that the prime minister decides on the status of each minister but that his decision also needs the support of the party’s leadership.
Bačić said that he had notified all the coalition partners of the nomination of the new Minister of Public Administration before the prime minister made the announcement on Thursday evening, adding that they supported Malenica’s nomination.
Bačić said that the position of the HDZ and most of the coalition partners was that a government reshuffle should be carried out as soon as possible.
According to unofficial sources, the extraordinary session of parliament might be held as early as the end of next week and the government reshuffle could include four to five ministries.
More HDZ news can be found in the Politics section.
