Labour May Join Croatia's Centre-Left Coalition

The head of Croatia's left-wing Labour Party, Nansi Tireli, on Friday said the party is close to join the governing centre-left coalition in the upcoming parliamentary elections.

The governing coalition, colloquially called "Kukuriku", after the restaurant where the coalition agreement was signed, consists of the centre-left Social Democratic Party, SDP, and its junior partners, the Croatian People's Party, HNS, the regional Istrian Democratic Assembly, IDS, and the Croatian Party of Pensioners, HSU.

"We are talking about it but the decision is still pending and hasn't been signed off. We are thinking about a coalition," Tireli stated on a talk show.

"In the parliamentary elections, the vast majority of citizens will choose between right and left," she added, noting that the left has to "keep together".

According to Tireli, the Labour Party will insist on rights of the workers as their core demand for joining the coalition.

She said the party started to think about joining the coalition after the SDP's president, Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic, approached her party with the suggestion of a joint coalition.

"We're going into negotiations and how will these negotiations end, we'll see," she concluded.

The Labour Party was formed in 2010 by former trade unionists and HNS members. It scored a success in the 2011 parliamentary elections, winning six seats. However, three have since left and have remained in parliament as independent MPs.

Political analyst Davor Gjenero said the party might be making a serious mistake.

"It is a bad political decision, opposite to the political values of the founders... the identity of a party depends on its individual ability to compete in elections," Gjenero told BIRN.

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