News Analysis: Tough tasks ahead for Croatia's new government despite strong parliamentary support

Croatia's new government,led by Andrej Plenkovic, stands a good chance to complete a four-year term, after it won support from 91 deputies in the 151-seat parliament, analysts believe.

Gordana Deranja, president of the Croatian Employers' Association (CEA), was happy with a government that won strong parliament support.

"Croatia finally has a stable government that is a prerequisite for any serious action. We are expecting a turnaround in economy, politics and reforms", she told Xinhua.

"I'm an optimist. The new government has a great chance to do something. I hope they will not miss the opportunity and momentum they have", she added.

The new government was formed by the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and its junior partner MOST party after an early election on September 11.

This is not the first coalition between HDZ and MOST. They formed a coalition government after the election in November 2015, but it stepped down five months later after a parliamentary non-confidence vote.

However, Tihomir Cipek, a professor of Faculty of Political Science at Zagreb University, believed the two governments were quite different.

The new government, led by Plenkovic, had strong support in parliament, including the support from the deputies of ethnic minorities and some from other parties. While former government led by a non-partisan prime minister who has spent most of his life out of the country and no political experience, he said.

"The new government is formed as it should be -- by the party who won the election. It has a greater support in the parliament while relations between the partners are better than before", he added.

He believed that Plenkovic would lead a moderate-centre policy and move his party from a far right political spectrum. A clear sign was he did not choose some controversial ministers from previous cabinet although they still had great influence inside the HDZ.

During the presentation of his new cabinet on Wednesday, Plenkovic told lawmakers his cabinet would make spurring economic growth and improving business climate as priorities.

Analysts here, however, believed it was not an easy job to do as Croatia just emerged from a six-year recession with GDP declining by 13 percent from 2008. The World Bank forecast the country to grow 2.4 percent this year and fall to 2.0 percent next year.

And the European Commission has put Zagreb under strict monitoring for macro-economic imbalances and deficits.

Croatia needed a series of reforms including a completely tax reform and a public administration reform that would unburden the economy, Deranja said.

The government should reduce public debt which stands at around 85 percent of GDP, Damir Novotny, an economic analyst said, adding the only way to reduce debt was privatization.

Also, excessive regulation was discouraging small and medium entrepreneurs, he said.

He wondered whether the new government was ready to take bold moves.

Despite they talked about reforms, but most of them did not referred to serious reforms and only suggested minor improvements, he said, adding economic growth was impossible without radical reform. Enditem