After Friday’s chaos in Parliament, it is obvious that Tomislav Karamarko does not control situation within his own coalition.
It is quite obvious that HDZ is not functioning as it should and that party president Tomislav Karamarko does not control all of his MPs. After the Patriotic Coalition and MOST on Friday for the third week in a row failed to muster a quorum in Parliament, due to the absence of three HDZ members and two MPs from their partner parties, it is clear that in addition to the government, Parliament is also not functioning, reports Večernji List on May 14, 2016.
This has been indirectly confirmed by Gordan Jandroković and Davorin Mlakar, who yesterday resigned as Deputy Presidents of the HDZ Parliamentary Group, saying that the Group was dysfunctional. The only person who could save HDZ in this situation is the party secretary general Milijan Brkić and there are rumours he could return to Parliament in order to establish control over the MPs and the party. Shortly after the new Parliament was constituted, Brkić suspended his mandate, saying that he could not be both an MP and the party secretary general at the same time.
One long-time HDZ member said that HDZ had not been properly functioning ever since Brkić left Parliament. It seems that Brkić has now realized the seriousness of the situation and has decided to takes things into his own hands. The first step would be his return to Parliament.
On Friday, Parliament turned into a real circus. First, it was determined that there was a quorum. However, that changed soon, since after two laws were adopted the opposition decided to stop voting and check whether the ruling coalition had a quorum on its own. The answer was “no”, since only 75 MPs from the ruling parties remained in the chamber, while the minimum of 76 MPs was needed for voting to continue. Several attempts were made to recount the MPs, but that only confirmed that there was one MP less than needed in the chamber.
Ivan Šuker, president of the HDZ Parliamentary Group, was visibly angry at his colleagues who did not come to the Parliament, since only two of those excused themselves. Interestingly, all 15 MPs from MOST were present.
“I apologize to the citizens, but the ruling majority still exists”, said Šuker, stressing that the coalition actually had 80 MPs. “If some people cannot come to the Parliament, they should resign. Some MPs hold five or six different posts. They need to decide what to do”, said Šuker.
SDP president Zoran Milanović reacted via Facebook: “The situation in Parliament demonstrated that the government and the non-existing parliamentary majority do not function. Croatia is in a serious political crisis due to a coalition which is not able to legislate. SDP is ready to take over the responsibility for leading the country and to continue the job we have started.”
