Bridge of Independent Lists

A key representative of ethnic minority communities in the Croatian parliament is insisting that Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic must distance himself from hardliners if he wishes to remain in power.

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.

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic shook the foundations of his centre-right coalition government on Thursday when he demanded the resignations of three ministers from the junior government party, the Bridge of Independent Lists, MOST.

Despite a dispute with the ruling centre-right Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandic may win the upcoming local elections in May, political analyst Zarko Puhovski told BIRN.

Reports last week suggested that the HDZ rejected Bandic's city budget proposal for 2017 in order to initiate a process to oust him.

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.

A centre-right coalition is emerging as the only likely option for a new Croatian government, as President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic readies to start the first round of consultations on Wednesday with parties and individual candidates on naming a prime minister-designate.