Under its new leader, European parliamentarian Andrej Plenkovic, the HDZ, which led Croatia through its first turbulent years of independence and war after the breakup of Yugoslavia 25 years ago, looks to have regained ground lost to the SDP after the previous government’s acrimonious fall. He will be able to choose between the new party Most (Bridge), which has however already set a number of conditions with a strong populist connotation, or the Social Democrats of Zoran Milanovic, who indirectly opened last night to the hypothesis of a grand coalition.
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Andrej Plenkovic, center, leader of center-right HDZ party addresses the media and supporters at his party’s headquarters in Zagreb, Croatia, early Monday, Sept. 12, 2016.
“HDZ has a good chance of forming a government if Most behaves rationally”, political analyst Zarko Puhovski told AFP.
Around 3.8 million voters were eligible to cast ballots.
Croatia’s previous, right-wing government collapsed last spring after only six months in power, paralyzed by internal bickering among the coalition members.
“So far we are happy with the results, and we are inviting everyone who wants a stable government to start coalition talks with us”, Milanka Opacic, a senior official in the Social Democrats, told Nova TV.
Also there are changes for People’s coalition too, but it largely depends on small parties, especially the MOST.
According to announcements coming from the HDZ overnight, the key to the future government will be this party and the Most; however, Most’s leader Bozo Petrovic is yet to say whether he plans go with the HDZ or with the SDP.
As experts predicted, the HDZ is likely to again form a government with MOST, which HDZ’s vice president and outgoing culture minister Zlatko Hasanbegovic announced last night.
Opinion polls indicate the Social Democrat-led four-party alliance will win at least 60 of 151 seats, but the conservative HDZ will still be just a few seats behind.
Preliminary results in Croatia show the ruling conservative party is leading parliamentary elections, but it has fallen short of receiving enough seats to form a government.
However unstable governments and early elections likely become to reality, they added.
“It is now up to us to bring stability into the Croatian state and institutions”, Plenkovic said.
“This is not a new trend, the right-wingers winning”, said Ljerka Kavoci, a Zagreb resident.
The nearly year of political deadlock has blocked reforms the former Yugoslav republic badly needs as it emerges from a six-year recession.
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Its economy, relying heavily on tourism along Croatia’s Adriatic coast, remains one of the EU’s weakest despite some recent positive indicators attributed to membership of the bloc. The country’s economy is expected to surge by 2,3% this year, although unemployment stands stubbornly high at 13% and public debt has reached an 85% debt-to-GDP ratio.
