June 7 (SeeNews) - The president of Croatia's opposition Social Democratic Party (SDP), Zoran Milanovic, on Tuesday called for a snap election in July, adding that the party will decide whether to support the motion for the dismissal of prime minister Tihomir Oreskovic in the next few days.
"We are a country without a government, and the only reasonable initiative that would make sense at this point is to dissolve the parliament as soon as possible," Milanovic said at a press conference aired on HRT a few hours after deputy prime minister and leader of the ruling conservative HDZ party, Tomislav Karamarko, said his party will file a no-confidence motion against Oreskovic later today.
SDP will not fall for HDZ's ploy to save Karamarko, the leader of the opposition noted.
He explained that SDP is yet to decide how to vote on the motion against Oreskovic, but that the party certainly wants to end the present stalemate.
"This situation was brought on by people in government, by both deputies and of course by the person who overnight accepted the role of Croatia's prime minister fully aware, or at least sufficiently aware, of the path he was embarking on. He irresponsibly accepted an impossible task," Milanovic said.
He added that since Karamarko faces a no-confidence vote before June 18 - launched by SDP over an alleged conflict of interests - he may speed up the Oreskovic motion.
"In two days, HDZ has made Oreskovic into public enemy number one and they want to take him down to avoid Karamarko's no-confidence motion," Milanovic explained.
He added that the country's president should show her support for a snap vote with over 70% of Croatian citizens currently in support of an early election.
Croatia's political crisis escalated last month when ministers of HDZ's coalition partner, MOST, voted in support of a motion launched by SDP for a no-confidence vote against Karamarko over alleged corporate interests related to business ties between his wife and a lobbyist involved in the privatisation of oil and gas firm INA.
Following the vote, Bozo Petrov, Croatia's other deputy PM and MOST leader, called for Karamarko's resignation with Oreskovic, at the time, stepping in to lend support for the HDZ head. After tensions between the deputies intensified further, the PM last week called for the resignation of both of them.
"If the prime minister wants his deputies, who put him in power, to step down, something is wrong," Karamarko noted earlier today, adding that Oreskovic should be replaced for several reasons including the evident dysfunction of the current government.
The HDZ-led Patriotic Coalition has 59 members in Croatia's 151-seat parliament. Its partner in the coalition government, MOST, has 19 MPs, while the SDP-led Croatia is Growing alliance has 56 seats.