May 4 (SeeNews) - Croatia's finance minister Zdravko Maric survived a no-confidence vote in parliament on Thursday after 75 out of 150 MPs voted in his support.
An equal number of MPs, 75, voted against Maric. The parliament session was aired live by local broadcasters.
The vote of no-confidence was requested by opposition Social Democratic Party (SDP) over the way Maric has handled the financial crisis in Croatia's largest food and retail concern Agrokor, his former place of employment.
Last week, the government voted to reject the no-confidence motion against Maric submitted by SDP, but three cabinet ministers from junior coalition partner MOST cast their votes in support of SDP and against the government. The prime minister, Andrej Plenkovic, then sacked the three ministers for betraying the coalition government.
The sackings were followed by the dismissal of the only remaining member of Plenkovic's cabinet from MOST, Ivan Kovacic, who was also deputy prime minister. MOST leader Bozo Petrov responded by saying that the Plenkovic has toppled the coalition government.
Conservative HDZ party, the senior partner in the government coalition led by Plenkovic, then filed a no-confidence motion against Petrov in his capacity of parliament speaker. This vote is expected to be held as early as Thursday, with HDZ claiming it has 79 signatures for his recall.
Late on Wednesday night, MOST also filed a motion to dissolve parliament and call early elections. It has not been made clear when the motion will be put to a vote, but Petrov said in parliament it will not be put on the agenda until the vote on Maric is held.
The parliament is currently on a two hour break so that the parties can discuss whether they are for or against the motion for the parliament's dissolution.
HDZ has not said how it will vote, but according to local media reports MPs are leaning both ways. However, with Maric to remain finance minister, HDZ is likely to vote against the dissolution, while MOST and SDP are expected to vote for.
Croatia's government, which also sits down today will from this Friday be on a long break due to local elections to be held on May 21.
HDZ has 56 of 151 seats in parliament, MOST has 14 and SDP controls 36.