Croatia Parliament to Meet Before Govt Formed

Croatia's parliament will hold its first session on Friday since the September general elections, before voting in a new government.

Although the future coalition government composed of the centre-right Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, centre-right Bridge of the Independent Lists, MOST, and eight national minorities MPs has the support of 91 out of 151 MPs, the government will not be confirmed at the opening session.

Instead, the session will be presided over by the acting chair, Zeljko Reiner, from the HDZ, while MOST president Bozo Petrov will then be confirmed as the new chair of parliament for the first two years of its mandate.

Petrov will be succeeded by the HDZ candidate for the second two years of the term, as was agreed between the two parties.

Petrov on Monday said that, as the opposition parties had announced they would stall matters with their MPs' speeches at the opening session, the government would not be confirmed until next week, Croatian news agency HINA reported.

"Due to the message we got from the opposition that it will use different options to make a spectacle in the parliament, I hope that by Tuesday or Wednesday we will see the formation of the government," Petrov said.

According to the MOST and HDZ leaders, parliament will immediately start debating the laws that MOST sees as crucial for adoption before the government is confirmed.

"At the beginning of the session, we want to adopt all the laws that are necessary before forming the new government, and the agenda will include the legislative proposals we agreed with MOST," HDZ leader and prime minister-designate Andrej Plenkovic told the same press conference.

Although the names of the new ministers are still not confirmed, reports said that...

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