Parliament has been constituted and Speaker elected.
On Friday afternoon, Members of Parliament met for the first session after the parliamentary elections held on 11 September. The session was attended by numerous guests, including President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović and outgoing Prime Minister Tihomir Orešković.
At the beginning of the session, the outgoing Speaker Željko Reiner made a short speech. “The period during which I had the honour to preside over Parliament was turbulent and politically significantly different from previous years. It lasted just half a year and was marked by the lack of clear political direction, even though the moment was such that it demanded a clear vision and unity which, unfortunately, we have not witnessed”, said Reiner. He stressed that he was still proud of how much Parliament achieved during its short term, but also how deeply conscious he was that it could have and should have done much more.
Ines Strenja Linić (MOST) than officially nominated MOST leader Božo Petrov to be new Speaker of Parliament. She called on everybody to support the proposal and elect Petrov as Speaker. There was no debate about her proposal since no MP wanted to speak.
In the voting which followed, Petrov received votes of almost all MPs, since it is customary for even opposition MPs to vote in favour when there is only one candidate for Speaker. In total, 132 MPs voted “in favour”, 12 abstained and 1 MP voted “against” (Ivan Pernar from Živi Zid).
The session ended with a short speech made by new Speaker of Parliament Božo Petrov. “I would like to thank you for electing me to head the most important state institution. You can be sure that I will timely put your proposals to the agenda of parliamentary sessions. Rest assured that I will strongly advocate that the Parliament should exercise its duties in the fullest sense and that it should be the main guarantor of the protection of national interests. There are huge challenges ahead of us”, said Petrov.
“My mission and duty is for Parliament as the highest institution to be the most representative body in Croatia that will be maximally effective”, added Petrov. He said that they had been “elected primarily to serve the people” and that everybody should do their duty “with pride and responsibility”. He added that there should be a consensus about issues that are of national importance.
After the speech, Petrov took over the Speaker’s chair and declared a short break in the proceedings. Later today, MPs will take an oath and will also elect deputy speakers and members of certain parliamentary committees.
