Social Democratic Party of Croatia

Rows inside Croatia's strongest opposition party, the Social Democratic Party, SDP, have continued after the party removed two prominent MPs from their positions as deputy chair of parliament and as president of the parliamentary committee for labour, pension system and social partnership.

Croatia's local elections on Sunday confirmed the strength of the governing centre-right Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, in the counties, but underlined its lack of strength in the major cities of Zagreb, Split, Rijeka and Osijek.

The HDZ won in 11 out of Croatia's 20 counties, while its traditional opponent, the opposition Social Democratic Party, SDP, managed to win in only five.

Some 3.7 million Croatian voters will be heading to the polls on Sunday for the local elections, choosing representatives for neighbourhood, city, municipality and county assemblies, as well as directly electing mayors, municipal heads, and county prefects.

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.

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.

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.

Experts have given the thumbs-down to a call by Josip Djakic, an MP from the ruling Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, for volunteers in the military to enjoy an advantage in getting jobs in the public service.

Djakic, also president of the Association of Croatian Military Handicapped of the Homeland War, on Thursday proposed the idea as a legal amendment.

Experts have given the thumbs-down to a call by Josip Djakic, an MP from the ruling Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, for volunteers in the military to enjoy an advantage in getting jobs in the public service.

Djakic, also president of the Association of Croatian Military Handicapped of the Homeland War, on Thursday proposed the idea as a legal amendment.

The likely result of an upcoming non-confidence vote on Croatia's Science and Education Minister Pavo Barisic is still unclear as both governing and opposition parties voice conflicting views.

On Saturday, Bernardic, 36, was elected leader of the SDP, Croatia's strongest opposition party, beating opponent and former interior minister Ranko Ostojic.