June 8 (SeeNews) - A group of 42 MPs of Croatia's ruling HDZ-led Patriotic Coalition has filed in parliament a document listing six grounds for the dismissal of technocratic prime minister Tihomir Oreskovic.
The document, made public by broadcaster HRT, follows Tuesday's announcement by deputy PM and HDZ leader, Tomislav Karamarko, that his party will file a no-confidence motion against the PM over the government's apparent dysfunction.
The six reasons for the motion include HDZ's loss of confidence in Oreskovic; the PM's failure to address economic and social issues; the PM's 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 deputy PMs - Karamarko and MOST leader Bozo Petrov - to step down despite his lack of political legitimacy, the document reads.
The MPs also accuse Oreskovic of maintaining political tension in the interest of gaining personal political power.
"He has endangered the functionality of the state and its financial stability," the sixth and final point reads.
In a response to Karamarko's proposal for his dismissal, Oreskovic, a non-elected professional who was appointed PM with the support of HDZ and MOST, said on Tuesday he is not afraid to ask for the parliament's confidence for the second time this year.
"Karamarko is a huge burden for the government and for his party," the PM said.
Croatia's political crisis escalated last month when MOST's ministers voted in support of a motion launched by opposition Social Democrats (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, 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 deputies, pushed the PM last week to call for their resignation.
"If the prime minister wants his deputies, who put him in power, to step down, something is wrong," Karamarko noted on Tuesday.
Karamarko faces a no-confidence vote of his own before June 18, however, parliament speaker Zeljko Reiner told HRT late on Tuesday that first on schedule will be the motion against the PM. In case that the no-confidence vote against the PM is passed by parliament, the government will fall and there will be no point in putting to the vote the motion against Karamarko.
SDP responded to yesterday's events stating that the motion against Oreskovic is HDZ's ploy to divert the attention away from Karamarko.
A few hours after Karamarko's statement, SDP leader Zoran Milanovic said at a press conference aired on HRT that it would be best to call a snap election in July. He added that the party is yet to decide how to vote on the motion against Oreskovic, but that it 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.
HDZ has rejected talk of an early vote, stating that there is still time to muster a new majority. The 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.