Prime Ministers of Croatia

Croatia needs a grand coalition of its two biggest parties - the Social Democratic Party and conservative HDZ - in order to put to rest an "irrational and meaningless" conflict over the country's 20th-century history and focus on more pressing issues, former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader says in his new book.

A meeting of the HDZ's presidency and National Council on Monday decided that the party's political secretary, Davor Ivo Stier and its international relations secretary, Miro Kovac, will be removed from their senior positions after a series of disputes within the centre-right ruling party.

Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic has said that "the will of the people must be respected" after a conservative campaign group called The People Decide gathered more than 370,000 signatures, equal to 10 per cent of the total electorate - enough to have its referendum proposal considered by officials.

Croatia's parliament on Friday confirmed the appointments of a new Vice-Prime Minister and Economy Minister - who will be in charge of handling the Agrokor crisis.

Following the resignation of Martina Dalic on May 14, her former positions are assigned to Agriculture Minister Tomislav Tolusic, as Deputy Prime Minister, and to Darko Horvat, as Economy Minister.

Media reported that a member of the governing Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, is being held in custody in Austria for allegedly doing a Nazi salute during a controversial WWII commemoration in Bleiburg.

At a joint press conference with Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic on Monday, Croatia's Deputy Prime Minister Martina Dalic said she was resigning as she "did not want to be a burden" to the Prime Minister's government and to Plenkovic's ruling Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ.

Croatian Vice-Prime Minister and Economy Minister Martina Dalic on Wednesday dismissed media allegations that she using her position to benefit her friends and business associates in the process of passing a law on the state management of ailing private company Agrokor.

Over 10,000 protesters from all over Croatia, as well as from Bosnia and Herzegovina, gathered on Thursday evening in the centre of the coastal city of Split to protest against Zagreb's upcoming ratification Council of Europe's Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, widely known as the Istanbul Convention.

The Croatian government urged parliament on Thursday to ratify a European treaty designed to combat violence against women despite opposition within the ruling party, among conservative groups and from the local Catholic Church.

BRUSSELS - Croatian PM Andrej Plenkovic said in Brussels on Wednesday Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic's visit to Zagreb had opened all topics and that a methodology for further dialogue had been agreed.