Croatia: Race Starts for PM's Post

roatia’s Prime Minister, Ivo Sanader, and opposition leader Zoran Milanovic have both said they will be seeking to form a new government after a close result in Sunday’s elections.

With nearly all votes in Croatia counted, Sanader’s centre-right Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, came first with 61 seats but the governing party was only five seats up on Milanovic’s Social Democrats, SDP, who achieved their best result since multi-party elections were restored in 1990.

Whoever forms a government will need the support of 77 deputies in the 152-seat parliament.

Sanader told Croatian media during the night that he had spoken to President Stjepan Mesic, and that he expected to receive a mandate to form a new government.

With votes still coming in from the traditionally conservative Croatian voters resident outside the country, the HDZ is expected to win a further five seats.

Milanovic, whose party lost power to a reformed, less nationalist HDZ four years ago, expressed his satisfaction with the SDP’s performance, and said he would try to form a new government.

“I also spoke with President Mesic, but I don’t want to tell the public about the details. At the moment, these are just preliminary and unofficial results“, Milanovic said at his party’s offices.

The SDP’s chances of forming a government were stressed by some of their traditional partners, including Vesna Pusic, leader of the Croatian People’s Party, HNS, which won seven seats.

However, the alliance that is likely to play the crucial role in deciding who can put together a government is the grouping of the Croatian Peasants’ Party, the Croatian Social-Liberal Party and the regional Primorsko Goranska Party, which together won eight seats.

The leader of the Peasants’ Party, Josip Friscic, explained that his alliance was open to discussions with both sides.

“During the coming week our negotiating teams will have to sit down and discuss all the crucial elements that we set out in our programme, and see with whom they may be put into practice”, Friscic said.

The decision on who should be invited to try to put together a new administration rests with Mesic.

“The mandate for the forming of the new government will be awarded to the person - and this may even be current Prime Minister Ivo Sanader - that brings me convincing evidence that they have a majority in the newly-elected Croatian parliament”, Mesic said in an address to Croatia’s citizens.