The result of the Prime Minister’s Party is not enough to form a government alone.
In Croatia, the ruling conservative prime minister’s party has won the most seats in the parliamentary elections, when almost all the votes have been counted. Sitting Prime Minister by Andrej Plenković HDZ got 60 seats in the 151-seat parliament. In the election held four years ago, the Prime Minister’s Party won 66 seats.
Plenkovic stated in his speech that HDZ has clearly won the parliamentary elections for the third time in a row.
The center-left coalition led by the Social Democratic Party won 42 seats. The party stated that the result was not as expected, but that it shows that the people want change. The sitting president is campaigning in the ranks of the party Zoran Milanović despite the Supreme Court’s warnings. The Supreme Court ruled that Milanovic cannot aspire to a party political position by the president, where the party register must be given up.
According to the court, the president should resign before election campaigning, but Milanovic continued campaigning as president in the ranks of the Social Democratic Party despite the court’s ruling.
His term ends in January, but Milanovic has stated that if the party and its allies form a majority in parliament, he would resign earlier.
Negotiations are difficult
The nationalist right-wing party came third with 14 seats. According to experts, it can be of great importance in the upcoming government negotiations, which are expected to be long and difficult, because the result of the prime minister’s party is not enough to form a government alone. Plenkovic said early Thursday that the formation of the government will begin on Thursday morning.
– The negotiation process will be very difficult to form a government, political expert Tihomir Cipek told the Nova television channel, according to AFP.
The ultraconservative party took 11 seats, and the party representing the green left took 10.
The turnout in Wednesday’s election rose to 60 percent, while four years ago it was below 50 percent.
Croatia suffers from widespread corruption, the highest level of inflation in the Eurozone, and illegal immigration from the country’s border areas. The country of just under four million inhabitants is one of the poorest in the European Union.
Source: AFP