Božo Petrov

The HDZ's wafer-thin new majority in the Croatian parliament - 76 out of 151 MPs in total - is likely to be just a temporary strategy employed by the party to push through legislation, with new elections likely to follow, veteran political Zarko Puhovski analyst told BIRN.

The Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, has remained in power after proving it still has a new majority in parliament and naming one of its MPs as the new chair of parliament, thus avoiding snap elections in June.

On Friday, it proved that it still had majority support by voting in HDZ MP Gordan Jandrokovic as the new chair of parliament.

Ahead of talks between President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic and leaders of Croatia's parliamentary parties and MPs on Friday, a resolution to the political crisis in the country is not in sight.

The head of MOST, Bozo Petrov, has resigned from his position as chair of Croatia's parliament after an opposition-backed move to unseat Finance Minister Zdravko Maric narrowly failed on Thursday.

Maric remained in his post after the failure of a no-confidence vote in parliament, when the opposition failed to gather the necessary 76 votes.

After Croatia's Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic axed three ministers from the junior government party, the Bridge of Independent Lists, MOST, Croatia appear set for political instability and even new elections, possibly in September, a leading politica. analyst told BIRN.

Croatia's parliament will hold its first session on Friday since the September general elections, before voting in a new government.

After 23 days of negotiations with future partners in government, Andrej Plenkovic, president of the leading centre-right party, the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, is due to be named prime minister-designate on Monday by the country's President.

After Croatia's State Election Commission counted all the votes from the general election, the centre-right Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, has emerged as the clear winner with 61 seats.

The centre-left People's Coalition came second with 54 seats followed by the centre-right MOST [Bridge], party, which won 13.

Voters in Croatia are going to the polls on Sunday to take part in the second parliamentary elections since November of last year, with no party heading for an outright majority.

There are 3.8 million eligible voters in the country who can cast ballots to elect 151 MPs, out of which eight are for national minorities and three to Bosnian Croats and the diaspora.

Tomislav Karamarko, who also holds the position of vice prime minister, said on Tuesday that his HDZ party will initiate a motion of no confidence to oust Prime Minister Tihomir Oreskovic because it believes the government has become dysfunctional.

Karamarko said that his party was ready for new elections, but Croatia "does not have time for that".