PM Plenkovic: Talks about new ministers to be held after first round of local polls

Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Wednesday he would begin talks on the appointment of four new ministers after the first round of local elections on Sunday and the nominees would be presented in Parliament after the second round of voting.

The new ministers, who are to replace the four ministers of the Bridge party who were sacked by the prime minister over their support for the opposition-sponsored motion for a no-confidence vote in Finance Minister Zdravko Maric, will be nominated "in talks with our future partners in a reconfigured parliamentary majority," Plenkovic said in an interview with Croatian Radio.

He said that the number of ministries would not be reduced.

Plenkovic said that it was up to members of Parliament with whom he would talk to decide whether they wanted political stability or an early parliamentary election.

"I am completely at peace. To me as the leader of the party which will win these local elections, which won the parliamentary elections, which has the highest rating and which will again be the relative winner of the next parliamentary elections, that's for sure, that makes no difference to me. I can be opportunistic and say something like (Foreign Minister) Davor Stier -- let's hold a parliamentary election during the second round of local elections and get a couple of seats more. That may be an opportunistic logic, but my logic is much greater. I am the Prime Minister and I am responsible for the functioning of the state," Plenkovic said.

Asked to comment on Stier's statement that he regretted the breakup of the HDZ-Bridge coalition and was more in favour of an early election after the termination of the cooperation between the two parties, Plenkovic said that the responsibility for the breakup lay solely with Bridge because it backed the opposition's initiative to topple Finance Minister Maric.

"As for his statement that he was building the cooperation with Bridge, that's true, but not more than I was. It was my choice and I suggested it to the HDZ Presidency that we go with Bridge. And as for regrets, that may be a personal view in politics, but politics is a job in which you are expected to work for the public good, to be responsible and make decisions, and the responsibility for leaving the government lies first and foremost with Bridge and there are no doubts about it. This must be made quite clear to the public," the PM said.

He said that he did not regret the decision to cooperate with Bridge or the decision to terminate their cooperation. "Had I done differently, I would have been a poor prime minister, a poor administrator, a poor manager, a poor person, for not defending my finance minister at a time when the country was consolidating its finances."

Plenkovic said he did not believe in forming a grand coalition with the Social Democratic Party (SDP), adding that he did not get the impression that the SDP was ready for it. He said that the SDP had responded to his calls for dialogue with no-confidence motions, complaints with the Constitutional Court and using all the existing mechanisms to destabilise his government.

"They are a parliamentary party, they are responsible, they have their own goals, their own reasons. As far as I am concerned, I can talk with them. There are others, of course, who are closer to us in terms of programme and ideology. We will have talks. I can have talks with (SDP leader Davor) Mr Bernardic, but I think their views are quite firm. They don't seem to be ready for cooperation," Plenkovic said.

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