ZAGREB, June 29, 2019 - The Croatian People's Party (HNS), which is the Croatian Democratic Union's (HDZ) strategic partner in the incumbent coalition government, will ask Prime Minister Andrej Plenković to convene an emergency meeting of the coalition because it insists that Public Administration Minister Lovro Kuščević of the HDZ should step down but it could also propose a bigger reshuffle, the Vecernji List daily of Saturday reported.
The bigger reshuffle would include the resignation of Health Minister Milan Kujundžić and of Regional Development and EU Funds Minister Gabrijela Žalac, according to the daily.
The daily reports that this was confirmed to it by the HNS leadership and that Deputy Prime Minister Predrag Štromar of the HNS will present his party's demand regarding Kuščević at a news conference to be held on Sunday at Sveti Martin na Muri, where the HNS Main Committee and Presidency are to hold a meeting.
The HNS will ask that the coalition meeting be held as early as Monday.
The party does not want to speculate about Kuščević's possible criminal liability with regard to scandals that concern his amassing his wealth and buying, repurposing and selling land at the time when he was the mayor of a community on the island of Brač, but it believes that he should have stepped down due to moral and political responsibility because scandals related to him burden and harm the government, the daily says.
"... we insist on Kuščević's resignation, and as regards a bigger reshuffle, which we are also proposing, (PM) Plenković will be the one to decide," a source in the HNS leadership told Vecernji List.
The HNS believes that Žalac should leave over scandals in which she is implicated and that Kujundžić should step down due to poor results in the health sector.
Since PM Plenković does not want the success of Foreign Minister Marija Pejčinović Burić, who was elected Secretary-General of the Council of Europe and is to take office on September 15, to be linked to a possible government reshuffle, the question that arises is what the HNS will do if Plenković rejects its demand for Kuščević's replacement and whether in that case, it will leave the government.
"We believe that Plenković will opt for a reshuffle, and if he does not, everything is possible in the autumn," the HNS source said.
More news about Minister Kuščević can be found in the Politics section.
