ZAGREB, June 13, 2020 - Robert Pauletic of the Homeland Movement said on Saturday that the party's condition for a possible coalition with the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) was that Andrej Plenkovic should no longer be the prime minister.
"(Homeland Movement leader) Miroslav Skoro has already announced this saying that Plenkovic could be a good foreign minister but not the prime minister," Pauletic told the N1 television channel.
He added that Plenkovic's ego probably would not allow him to be relegated from the position of the prime minister to that of foreign minister. "He has saved his premiership several times, but he can't do it anymore."
"If the SDP (Social Democratic Party) emerges as a relative winner, will it agree to Plenkovic being the prime minister? A grand coalition is possible and I wouldn't rule out that possibility. Plenkovic is politically closer to the left than to the Homeland Movement," Pauletic said, adding that Plenkovic proved this by forming a coalition with the Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) and the Croatian People's Party (HNS).
Asked if the next prime minister should be a non-party person or the Homeland Movement would insist on its own candidate, Pauletic said they first needed to see how many parliamentary seats they would win.
As for a possible coalition between the Homeland Movement and the SDP, he said that it was highly unlikely because of their ideological differences. He added that a coalition with the SDSS was also unacceptable because "Milorad Pupovac has been sucking money out of the state budget for decades" and his weekly Novosti is anti-Croatian.
