June 14 (SeeNews) - Croatia's parliament will hold a no-confidence vote in technocratic prime minister Tihomir Oreskovic on Thursday, as the ruling party HDZ has confirmed finance minister Zdravko Maric as its sole candidate for prime minister, the party's secretary general said.
"The prime minister should resign because the government has obviously reached an impasse," Domagoj Ivan Milosevic said during a news conference in Zagreb late on Monday, following a session of the HDZ presidency.
He added that unlike Oreskovic, Maric understands the political context and has the credibility of a businessman in the public and private sector.
"Croatia needs political stability," Maric noted and added that he is honoured by HDZ's decision and ready to accept the challenge.
Last week, a group of 42 MPs of Croatia's HDZ-led Patriotic Coalition filed in parliament a document listing six grounds for the dismissal of Oreskovic. The reasons for the motion include HDZ's loss of confidence in Oreskovic; the prime minister's failure to address economic and social issues; his lack of understanding for the constitutional order of the state exhibited by his decision to call off a government session half an hour prior to its commencement due to a meeting with the Security and Intelligence Agency (SOA); his appeal to his deputies - HDZ leader Tomislav Karamarko and MOST head Bozo Petrov - to step down despite his lack of political legitimacy.
Croatia's political crisis escalated last month when the ministers of smaller coalition partner MOST voted in support of a motion launched by opposition Social Democrats (SDP) for a no-confidence vote against Karamarko over alleged corporate interests.
Following the vote, Petrov called for Karamarko's resignation with Oreskovic, at the time, stepping in to lend support for the HDZ head. The increasingly bad blood between the deputy prime ministers pushed the prime minister to call for their resignation.
"If the prime minister wants his deputies, who put him in power, to step down, something is wrong," Karamarko said last Tuesday.
The HDZ-led Patriotic Coalition has 59 members in Croatia's 151-seat parliament, its current partner in the coalition government, MOST, has 19 MPs, while the largest opposition formation, the Croatia is Growing alliance, led by SDP, has 56 seats.