the new Croatian government enters into “hard cohabitation” with the president

It was center-right Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic who won the legislative elections. Allied with the far-right party to form a government, he will cohabit with the social democratic president, Zoran Milanovic.

Croatia renewed its united cameral parliament, the Sabor, on April 17. In European microphone, Vladimir Matek, former Croatian diplomat, sheds light on the aftermath of these extraordinary legislative elections. Center-right Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic faced the Social Democratic Party (SDP) of Croatia’s incumbent President Zoran Milanovic. And it was Andrej Plenkovic who won.

franceinfo: Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and his party, the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), won, but it was difficult to form a government. Was it necessary to make an alliance?

Vladimir Matek: Exactly. We had to make an alliance. There was no other possibility, neither for the left parties nor for any other combination. He had to deal with the party that came third in this election, the Patriotic Movement (DP), which is a populist right.

This Patriotic Movement is very close to the identitarians?

Exactly. This is something that is now seen almost everywhere in Europe. From my point of view, unfortunately. The government will be created so that the Patriotic Movement will not get what it expected to get. They had insisted on the Ministry of Education, Culture, etc. Finally, they will have part of the economy, with energy, they will have agriculture, because their electoral base is in Slavonia, which is a rather agricultural region, and they will have as some consolation a new ministry, the Ministry of Demography. Since Croatia joined the European Union, around 400,000 people have left the country hoping to find something better, especially in Ireland, Austria and Germany. But now things, with the economic crisis starting, are not looking very good there. Some expatriates, especially from South America where things are not going very well either, might want to return to their country, the children of former migrants.

It is said that Andrej Plenkovic sees a “European future”?

It was part of the campaign to scare people by saying: he’s going to abandon you. But he denied it very strictly and personally, I don’t believe. Although, not knowing what will happen in the European elections, you can never say never.

There is therefore a centre-right and populist right-wing government, with a President of the Republic who is a social democrat. How will the future of Croatia be managed?

Hard cohabitation. It’s a “private” war of Milanovic against Plenkovic. The president, by the Constitution, does not have much possibility of influencing politics in the country, but he can block certain things: the appointments of ambassadors (which has already happened) or certain appointments at the defense level because he is charged by the Constitution with being a partner of the government in these two sectors. For the rest, he can make comments, but not much in the way of action. At the end of the year, there is a presidential election, and I would be surprised if it passed again.

Are you confident in the ability of the new Croatian government to manage the country?

In the geopolitical situation we are experiencing now, it was important to have stability because the alternative was to have new elections and that all this drags on for God knows how long, with majorities impossible to create. There, there will be a little change in the line, but not too much. And the country will still have stability again.