Leaders of the two parties comment on their agreement to form a government.
Leaders of HDZ and MOST Andrej Plenković and Božo Petrov said on Friday that they had reached an agreement on all important issues and added that they both believed that Croatia would get a stable government which will work effectively in the next four years, reports Jutarnji List on October 7, 2016.
“We had very thorough, engaged and friendly discussions in recent days and yesterday we agreed on all the important issues that were on the agenda, starting first with the seven demands made by MOST which were articulated before the elections, and then we worked of the joint programme of the government which will have the support of national minorities”, said Plenković to reporters.
He added that the idea to have a “'rotating” Speaker of Parliament was a European solution which had already been applied in the European Parliament. “During the first two years, Speaker of Parliament will be Petrov, and during the next two years it will be a representative of HDZ”, said Plenković. “I think this is a compromise which best reflects clearly expressed will of the voters, confirms our worldview and programme similarities, and I expect that we will have a stable parliamentary majority, a stable government in the next four years”, said Plenković.
MOST leader Božo Petrov said that the agreement was “a kind of compromise”. “Based on the last three weeks of negotiations, we believe that this will be a stable government, and that it will be a government that really wants for changes to happen”, said Petrov. He congratulated HDZ and Plenković because they accepted the seven guarantees that MOST demanded. He added that the agreement reached was “good for both sides”.
Asked which ministries would belong to MOST, Plenković said that it was agreed that MOST would have a deputy prime minister who will at the same time be Minister of Administration, and that it will have three more ministers – in the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Environmental Protection and Energy. “Energy portfolio will be merged with the Ministry of Environmental Protection”, he said.
Asked how many MPs’ signatures of support he had, Plenković replied that MOST would give 15 signatures, and that in the end he would perhaps have more than 90 signatures. “Maybe some more will arrive by Monday when I will meet with the President”, said Plenković. Petrov confirmed that MOST would give 15 signatures, but did not give further details. MOST has 13 elected MPs, and there is one former Živi Zid MP who has announced he would enter the MOST Parliamentary Group. It is not clear at the moment who is the 15th MP.
Petrov explained why they insisted on the speakership. “We did not want the three most important posts in Croatia to belong to the same party. I think that is good for democracy and democratic system in Croatia. On the other hand, we wanted to finally have the speakership because we wanted to build trust with the other side”, said Petrov. He denied that MOST wanted to use the post to control HDZ. “It is not about any kind of control. The fact that the Speaker is the person who makes decisions about parliamentary agenda is a factor which will give a further impetus for reforms to happen”, explained Petrov.
