ZAGREB, Croatia, Nov. 9 (UPI) — Croatia faces the task of building a coalition government after the center-right Croatian Democratic Union Party captured the most parliamentary seats in weekend elections.
The party, identified by the acronym HDZ and led by Tomislav Karamarko, won 59 seats in the 151-seat parliament, with the incumbent Social Democrats receiving 54 and a radical, new right-wing party, Most, receiving 19. None have enough for a majority of 76.
Attempts to build a coalition could take months, with each party suspicious of the others, and each demanding its leader becomes prime minister. Since each party has a different agenda regarding Croatia’s problems, a successful coalition government seems unlikely.
Croatian political scientist Dejan Jovic called a “grand coalition” of parties, as in Germany, is “completely impossible.”
Although Social Democrat leader and Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic received international praise for his compassionate handling of the 320,000 refugees who have passed through Croatia thus far in 2015, HDZ campaign rhetoric included suggestions that fences be built on the border. The country has become a transit hub for migrants leaving the Middle East and traveling to Western Europe, and many Croatians have memories of their own refugees fleeing the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
The new government also faces an economic crisis, with Croatia’s unemployment and youth unemployment rates among the highest in the European Union. After six years of recession, growth in 2015 has been miniscule.
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