ZAGREB, 22 Feb 2022 - Deputy Prime Minister Tomo Medved said on Tuesday the HDZ would nominate a construction minister candidate from its ranks by the end of the week because some ruling coalition partners did not accept the idea to nominate Stjepan Čuraj of the Croatian People's Party.
The first item on the agenda was the partners' position on relations within the coalition, Medved told the press after talks with the coalition partners on a candidate for the minister of physical planning, construction and state assets after Darko Horvat was relieved of duty on Saturday.
Medved said the coalition was stable and firm and that the partners unanimously supported the prime minister and the government in their work and programme.
Regarding the initial proposal that Čuraj be the new minister, Medved said Prime Minister Andrej Plenković's idea was to make a gesture towards the liberal coalition partners given the successful cooperation in the coalition and that Čuraj, as state secretary at the Finance Ministry, was an active member of the Banovina post-earthquake reconstruction task force.
Medved said the goal was to appoint a new construction minister in the shortest time possible in order to intensify the post-earthquake reconstruction.
He said the coalition partners would support the HDZ candidate the prime minister would nominate for the office.
Medved did not say explicitly if parliament would vote on the candidate on Friday, saying that Plenković would hold consultations tomorrow with several HDZ officials involved in the selection process, and that everything would be done for the new minister to be appointed as soon as possible.
He said the appointment of the new minister would "certainly freshen up, that is reinforce" the Construction Ministry.
Medved also said the ministry would intensify cooperation with the Central State Reconstruction and Housing Office and the Zagreb Reconstruction Fund to "intensify the reconstruction process."
