Croatia’s recent inconclusive election has meant that there is still plenty of work left to secure a new cabinet in the country.
With the Social Democrats winning 56 seats and the conservative HDZ party securing 59, the consequence was that nobody was a clear winner and this has resulted in a political headache. It means that the three-year-old “Most” party, who secured nineteen seats during the election, will have a big part to play as the country attempts to put together its new cabinet.
Coincidently, “most” in Croatian means “bridge”, which is effectively the task of this young party. The likelihood is that HDZ and the Social Democrats will have to come to an arrangement that results in a joint cabinet.
However, if initial discussions are anything to go by, it could be difficult for either of the two competing parties to come to an agreement. While both parties have shown some willingness in accepting some of their ideas, the thought of a joint cabinet still seems a long way off.
Experts are not surprised by the reluctance by the parties to join Most. As well as being an especially young party, it is comprised of municipal politicians who have pledged their faith with numerous parties over the years. In other words, there is little unity and this is immediately off-putting for a prospective joint cabinet.
There are of course some Most policies that many are struggling to agree with. It’s understood that one of their mandatory conditions for supporting a new government is to have an exclusive economic zone in the Adriatic Sea. They believe that this is absolutely crucial for a country which has suffered with some of its worst economic times of late.
Of course, if no agreement between the parties can be reached, a new election will have to take place.
According to some experts in the country, this would be a disastrous course of action. The country’s frail economic state means that put simply, they don’t have any time to waste in putting together a new cabinet. The time it would take to base a new election would be significant and when one considers Croatia’s public debt of almost 90% this is almost inconceivable. With a 17% rate of unemployment statistic also accompanying this, it goes without saying that members of the public are desperate that compromises can be made and the country can finally start to make steps forward.
