The battle to nominate the Croatian Speaker of Parliament.
On Saturday, two days before the meeting of the Parliament scheduled for Monday at noon, when the Speaker of Parliament should finally be elected which would mean that the new Parliament has formally been constituted, sources from SDP-led Croatia Is Growing coalition did not want to say definitely whether the coalition would have its own candidate for the Speaker or whether they have accepted the fact that they will be in opposition. “At 5 pm on Sunday, SDP will hold a meeting of its members of parliament and make the final decision”, one prominent SDP member said. “I cannot say anything before the meeting of the MPs”, said Igor Dragovan, head of SDP parliamentary caucus in last Parliament, reports Jutarnji List on December 27, 2015.
These responses can mean two things: either SDP is preparing a big surprise for Monday which they do not want to disclose, or they have simply not yet decided whether to try to elect their own Speaker or have not found a candidate who would be willing to be nominated in a situation when there is a high risk of failure.
The Speaker of Parliament is elected by a simple majority. If SDP does not nominate its candidate, candidate from HDZ-led Patriotic Coalition and MOST, which will probably be Željko Rainer, will certainly be elected since in that case MPs would vote publicly. It is highly unlikely that any MP would vote against the coalition agreement. However, if there are two candidates, that the voting would be done by a secret ballot, unless the majority decides otherwise. Some people from Croatia Is Growing coalition believe that several MPs from MOST could support their candidate if the voting is done by the secret ballot.
One possibility is that the SDP candidate would be current Speaker Josip Leko, who has refused to give any comments. However, there are some in SDP who believe that Leko would not accept to be a candidate. “The position of the Speaker of Parliament by itself does not offer too many possibilities in circumstances in which MOST and HDZ have agreed to form a joint government”, said one SDP source. They also do not believe that so-called “left wing” of MOST will do anything. “Why would someone, who has already lost face by publicly giving support to the Prime Minister-designate for whom no one in Croatia had ever heard about, now vote for Leko to try to save face?”
There are also some rumours that the candidate for the speakership will not be Leko, but Drago Prgomet, president of HRID party and former member of MOST. Proponents of this idea point out that Prgomet has better chances against Reiner than Leko in the secret ballot because he could attract votes of disgruntled MPs from MOST and even perhaps some from HDZ members of parliament who are unhappy with the selection of future Prime Minister.
