Croatia Local Elections Could Boost Renegade Rightists

Controversial former Culture Minister Zlatko Hasanbegovic, along with other two independent right-wing MPs - Bruna Esih and Zeljko Glasnovic - could withdraw their support for the government led by the centre-right Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, an analyst told BIRN.

After the HDZ officially announced on Monday that Hasanbegovic is no longer a member of the party, it was immediately evident that the HDZ - which has recently ended its coalition with its junior government partner, Bridge of the Independent Lists, MOST - will need the three right-wingers' votes if it wants to maintain a governing majority in parliament.

"I think that their decision on how they [Hasanbegovic, Esih and Glasnovic] will act towards the HDZ and  [Prime Minister and HDZ leader] Andrej Plenkovic largely depends on the results of the local elections," Berto Salaj, a professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Zagreb, told BIRN.

"If they have a very good result in the elections, then they will notice that they have political strength which they can use at new [early] parliamentary elections and then they won't be prone to making any deals with Plenkovic, because they'll feel that they can manage to win seats in parliament by themselves," Salaj explained.

But he said that if the elections' result is bad for the right-wingers, the group will look for some sort of compromise with the HDZ - either by supporting a minority government or by entering the government - and will not push for early parliamentary elections.

During the latest crisis within the coalition government - initiated by Plenkovic's move to sack three MOST ministers in late April - the three right-wing MPs backed the HDZ.

Hasanbegovic and Esih voted against the removal of Finance Minister...