Croatia starts negotiations on gov't formation

The Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), the relative winner in Sunday's parliamentary elections, was starting negotiations on government formation with other parties on Tuesday.

Talks with the party MOST, which won 13 seats, and other parties started Tuesday, Andrej Plenkovic, the president of HDZ said.

HDZ won 61 seats in the 151-member parliament, but not enough to form a government along, MOST could be its partner again, although their coalition government stepped down in June following an non-confidence vote after in power only five months.

The HDZ was in a much better position than the Social Democratic Party, the biggest opposition which won 54 seats in the election, to form a new government with MOST, Bozo Skoko, Croatian public relations expert and professor at the University of Zagreb said.

"I think that the negotiation will not last as long as last time when it took months to reach an agreement between them," he said.

However, even with the supports from MOST, HDZ still shorts at lest two seats as a majority, while the small party coalition "the Only Option" which won eight seats, has declared it would not form a coalitions with either the HDZ or the SDP.

Dejan Jovic, Professor of International Relations at University in Zagreb, suggested the possible of a grand coalition between the HDZ and the SDP.

"The only stable government in Croatia would be a grand coalition between the HDZ and the SDP. The SDP is interested in such an outcome, while the HDZ could go with MOST and form a less stable government," Jovic said.

So far the HDZ didn't show any interest in the grand coalition, and its leader Plenkovic clearly ruled out any possibility of a grand coalition with the SDP, saying that was out of the question. Endit