Croatian PM Plenkovic secures support for new govt

"After submitting 78 signatures of members of the future 11th Croatian Parliament, I have been assigned a mandate to form the Croatian government, and we continue in the third mandate to work for the prosperity of Croatia," Plenkovic wrote on his Facebook profile. He submitted the signatures to president Zoran Milanovic.

The pro-Western conservative Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) led by Plenkovic and its partners won 61 seats in the unicameral parliament in the general election held on April 17. Centre-left Social Democrats, SDP, came in second with 42 seats.

On Wednesday, HDZ said it reached an agreement with right-wing, eurosceptic and populist political formation Homeland Movement (DP) to establish a parliamentary majority. DP emerged as the third strongest political group in the new parliament with 14 seats.

Conservative populist political party Most (Bridge) will have 11 seats and the left-wing green political party Mozemo (We Can) will hold 10 seats in the new parliament. Two regionalist formations, the centre-right Istrian Democratic Assembly (IDS) and the independent platform NP Sjever (North), each secured two seats, while the coalition Fokus-Republika gained one seat. National minorities in Croatia are entitled to eight representatives in parliament.

Croatia's new parliament will hold its inaugural session on May 16.

Plenkovic has been prime minister since October 2016. During his tenure, the Adriatic country of 3.8 million people entered the eurozone and Europe's free-travel Schengen area on January 1, 2023.