ZAGREB, November 13, 2018 - The GONG NGO, which monitors election processes, said on Tuesday that the flood of MPs who are changing parties and, by doing so, maintaining the parliamentary majority for Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, undermines the election result and trust in the election process and democracy.

The NGO called on citizens to consider whether they will again place their trust in those who "have changed their jersey" in the next election or punish them. "GONG is concerned about the low level of democratic political culture in Croatia as evidenced by the way the parliamentary majority is being maintained, which was not seen before the term of Prime Minister Andrej Plenković. Parliament is losing citizens' trust because the majority is not being formed based on the election platforms that citizens voted for but is being maintained thanks to political bartering and a flood of defectors who make actions by such an unprincipled coalition possible," GONG said in a press release.

It recalled that during the term of the current, ninth parliament, 22 MPs have opted for changing parties. "Prime Minister Plenković is being helped in maintaining the parliamentary majority by the people who, until yesterday, were his opponents, which undermines the election results and ruins trust in the election process and democracy," GONG said.

GONG underscores that a parliamentary seat belongs to a member of parliament and not their party or caucus. "However, the large number of lawmakers switching sides to join their political opponents... reflects the contempt some lawmakers feel toward the political will of citizens," GONG said. "Actions like that lead to suspicion of political corruption and reflect a low level of the democratic political culture and political responsibility of individual politicians," GONG concluded.

Croatian People's Party (HNS) leader Ivan Vrdoljak commented on Tuesday on former Social Democrat member of parliament Mario Habek joining the HNS parliamentary group, saying that he supported political transfers if they were motivated by the wish to have better conditions for one's political work and that such changes must not be motivated by personal benefits. "We have offered Habek our party logistics in Ivanec, Varaždin County... so that he can continue his work," Vrdoljak said.

Habek, a former Social Democrat, left the SDP a month ago, saying that he would continue working as an independent MP and would not join any other party.

Commenting on Habek's transfer to the HNS, Public Administration Minister Lovro Kuščević of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) said that he was glad "that the number of MPs supporting this government's good work is growing." Reporters also asked Kuščević if transfers like Habek's were good for democracy and voter trust given that Habek had been a staunch opponent of the HDZ's policies, and was now its partner.

"I am not familiar with his personal motives, but the most important thing about the right to an opinion is the right to change your opinion. In this case, the change of opinion was a right one because the government really is doing a good job ... the party which Habek has left evidently has no future... and he has joined a party that offers concrete solutions," Kuščević said.

Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) whip Branko Bačić said on Tuesday that the parliamentary majority had been stable for a year and a half and that individual opposition lawmakers' joining it meant that they appreciated the work of the government led by Prime Minister Andrej Plenković. "The fact that opposition MPs are joining parties that make up the parliamentary majority is evidence that they appreciate what the Andrej Plenković government has been doing," Bačić told reporters.

He noted that the defecting MPs were obviously dissatisfied with their parties' policies or their status in their own parties.

Asked if this made his job easier, given that he had to take care of the quorum and ensure sufficient support for the adoption of laws, Bačić said that the latest transfers did not change anything significantly because the parliamentary groups of the HDZ and other parties performed their duties on a regular basis. "I still count on 77 hands that have been certain since the first day, and I have no special comment on individual MPs crossing the floor," Bačić said.

Asked if he considered such transfers to be the cheating of voters, Bačić said that political transfers had always happened and would probably happen in the future as well. "If there are any indications of corruption, I'm in favour of investigating it. I'm absolutely against transfers that are a result of political trade-offs," he said, adding that such practice should be prosecuted.

The HDZ has nothing with such transfers, our parliamentary group functions very well, and we have nothing against transfers if they are due to individual MPs' dissatisfaction with the situation in their own parties, said Bačić.

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ZAGREB, November 10, 2018 - Social Democratic Party (SDP) leader Davor Bernardić commented on Saturday on the 2018 budget revision, the 2019 budget proposal and the set of nine tax bills announced by Finance Minister Zdravko Marić on Friday, saying that all this showed that Croatia would continue to stagnate and there would be no reforms.

"This is just patching up holes and uncontrollable spending of money to buy votes and coalition partners, which is proved by the planned increase in expenditure of as much as 8.6 billion kuna in one year alone and the fact that expenditure will overshoot 140 billion kuna," Bernardić said in a statement.

Bernardić said that the draft of the new budget was based on a tax reform that "actually isn't a reform at all." He said that all along the government had been speaking of "tax relief" while now it projected the 2019 budget revenue from taxes at over 3 billion kuna more. "What kind of reform is that and what kind of tax relief?" he wondered, noting that the currently strongest sector, tourism, was saddled with a burden of four or five new levies. "Instead of reforming the healthcare sector, the government is patching up a hole by reducing some of the contributions while at the same time increasing the healthcare contribution."

Instead of easing the tax burden on salaries for most workers, the government has decided to increase salaries only for the 20,000 richest people in the country, namely those with monthly salaries exceeding 18,000 kuna, the SDP leader said, noting that even the Croatian Employers Association (HUP) had denied the government's claim that salaries for IT employees would grow.

"That's why we in the SDP have proposed increasing the non-taxable portion of salaries from 3,800 to 5,000 kuna so that wages for 600,000 workers would increase by 300-500 kuna monthly or 4,000 to 6,000 annually," he said.

Bernardić welcomed the government's move to increase the amount of non-taxable bonuses to 7,500 kuna, but noted that the government had actually not renounced anything in favour of workers but had left it to the discretion of employers, "so it is a big question how many of them will decide to increase bonuses for their workers."

He accused the government of exaggerating figures about the absorption of EU funds. "Today, after five and a half years of EU membership, we have actually absorbed only 14 percent of nearly 11 billion euro placed at our disposal by the EU. This is also one of the reasons why we are stagnating in relation to other EU members."

Bernardić said that all the budget projections would not be enough to stop people from leaving Croatia and resolve the problem of labour shortages. He also pointed out that the government had not specified what reforms it intended to implement next year and how the country would move up in competitiveness rankings.

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ZAGREB, October 28, 2018 - Social Democratic Party (SDP) vice president Zlatko Komadina said on Saturday this opposition party "doesn't have much time to improve its rating" and that he did not arrange with Ranko Ostojić the demand for a vote of no confidence in president Davor Bernardić.

"We must go back to 20% and we will, and if that calls for personnel changes, they will be made," he told reporters after a Main Committee session, referring to the SDP's public opinion rating.

As for Bernardić's stepping down, Komadina said there was always time for that but "there's not much time to improve our rating." He added that "everyone responsible should think of the party first and not of themselves."

Asked which public opinion rating would sound the alarm, he said that would happen when a majority felt the president should step down. "If a majority of people think he should step down, I believe a reasonable president will step down," he said, adding that he was against putchism, but that the motion for a no-confidence vote was "lege artis as it was made at the party's bodies."

As for rumours that he and SDP members from Primorje-Gorski Kotar County thwarted a deal to oust Bernardić, Komadina said he did not instruct anyone how to vote on the motion to put on the agenda of today's Main Committee session a vote of no confidence in the president.

He dismissed as irrelevant speculation that he had agreed, in case Bernardić was ousted, to be the party's acting president until an election convention. "There's nothing to agree to. I am the vice president and if the president steps down for whatever reason, under the statute I run the party until elections."

On Saturday, a motion for no confidence vote was unexpectedly put forward during a meeting of the party’s Main Committee, but was not included in the agenda since not enough members present voted for it. Earlier this week, the Commission for Conflict of Interest Prevention also launched proceedings against Bernardić.

ZAGREB, October 27, 2018 - Bernardic survives. An attempt to put on the agenda of Saturday's Social Democratic Party (SDP) Main Committee session a vote of no confidence in president Davor Bernardic failed as there were not enough votes.

Of the 87 Main Committee members, 38 voted for including the item on the agenda. The minimum required is 44 votes.

Including the item on the agenda was moved by Zlatar Mayor Jasenka Augustan Pentek, who told the committee she had 35 signatures for initiating a vote of no confidence in Bernardić and appointing Zlatko Komadina acting president until the party's election convention.

Allegedly, ten SDP Presidency members were for initiating the procedure and Komadina agreed to be acting president until the convention.

Augustan Pentek said after the no-confidence motion failed that "we believed there was a voice of reason in the Main Committee and that everyone sees the situation is not good." She said they wanted to "talk about the problems in the party and offer a solution so as to stabilise the country." She said Bernardic was not the only one to blame for the situation in the party but that he was the president.

Opening today's Main Committee session, Bernardic said he would not allow the scandals in the country to be covered up. He said "people are leaving the country because they've had it with watching the criminal underworld run the country... They are leaving because they see that the political and judicial systems are being massively abused, how corrupt they are, and that attempts are being made to cover up the Borg, text messages and elite prostitution scandals."

"In order to further cover up the scandals, they are willing to scheme with some punks from our ranks to hand over the SDP to the ruling HDZ," Bernardic said. "I won't let them hand us over to the HDZ, I won't let them use their friends' network to sell off the party and the state."

He said the SDP's key task was to restore trust in the authorities and hope among citizens.

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ZAGREB, October 27, 2018 - The Social Democratic Party (SDP) Main Committee's meeting on Saturday was expected to focus on the party's preparations for the European Parliament's election, however, immediately after the introductory address by SDP chief Davor Bernardić, a motion for his resignation was put forward.

Zlatar Mayor Jasenka Augustin Pentek told committee members she had the necessary 35 signatures to recall Bernardić and appoint Zlatko Komadina acting SDP president.

Committee chairman Erik Fabijančić declined to include her proposal in the agenda, but allowed a debate which soon became very heated.

A recess in proceedings is currently underway.

ZAGREB, October 25, 2018 - Social Democratic Party (SDP) leader Davor Bernardić said on Thursday that he would honour any decision of the Conflict of Interest Commission after it initiated proceedings against him for receiving a scholarship from Zagreb's Cotrugli Business School.  The scholarship from the private company Cotrugli d.o.o., which owns Cotrugli Business School, is seen as a donation and an impermissible gift.

ZAGREB, October 5, 2018 - The president of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) Davor Bernardić told reporters in parliament on Friday that "Croatia is in the hands of mafia."

ZAGREB, October 1, 2018 - Social Democratic Party (SDP) leader Davor Bernardić said on Monday that his party would call for a commission of inquiry for the fake texts scandal and wondered what the USKOK anti-corruption office, State Prosecutor's Office (DORH) and Chief State Prosecutor Dražen Jelenić were doing in investigating this case.

ZAGREB, September 19, 2018 - The start of Question Time in the Croatian parliament on Wednesday was marked by a verbal clash between Social Democratic Party (SDP) leader Davor Bernardić and Prime Minister Andrej Plenković regarding the government's work, with Bernardić accusing the prime minister of failing to carry out any reforms in the past two years and protecting people who siphoned money from Agrokor, and Plenković responding that the SDP was a petty party and its members were whiners.

ZAGREB, September 19, 2018 - Milanka Opačić, a senior member of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and member of parliament, said on Wednesday that she was leaving the SDP and that she would continue her political career as an independent member of parliament.