Veteran Zagreb Mayor Looks Set for Re-Election

Despite a dispute with the ruling centre-right Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandic may win the upcoming local elections in May, political analyst Zarko Puhovski told BIRN.

Reports last week suggested that the HDZ rejected Bandic's city budget proposal for 2017 in order to initiate a process to oust him.

But Puhovski said that was not likely, as according to media reports, the HDZ's president and Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic  rejeced that possibility on Monday.

"I don't believe that HDZ will choose that option because it doesn't have a candidate for mayor and I don't see why it would help others [parties]," Puhovski said.

"Bandic is the least bad option for them if they don't have a candidate of their own. They only have one candidate that can possibly win and that is [controversial former culture minister] Zlatko Hasanbegovic, and Plenkovic won't allow him to run for internal party reasons," he explained

He argued that Plenkovic he would only allow Hasanbegovic to run for mayor "if there were no chances of winning, in order to further marginalise him inside the party".

Puhovski does not see any other candidate who could beat Bandic in the local elections.

Cooperation between the HDZ and Bandic started in December 2015, when his party, Milan Bandic 365 - Party of Labour and Solidarity, offered to support the coalition government of the HDZ and the Bridge of Independent Lists, MOST, under former Prime Minister Tihomir Oreskovic.

The HDZ in turn gave Bandic the support he needed in Zagreb's city assembly.

However, after early parliamentary elections in September, Bandic's party won only one seat in parliament and was no longer part of the government, now led by Plenkovic.

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