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Croatian speaker resigns creating possibility of early elections

Xinhua, May 4, 2017 Adjust font size:

Croatian Parliament Speaker Bozo Petrov from the Most (Bridge) party, a junior partner of the current coalition, resigned Thursday after a no-confidence vote against the finance minister failed.

"In order to protect the dignity of the Croatian parliament, I am taking full responsibility and am resigning as speaker," he said.

Earlier, Finance Minister Zdravko Maric survived a no-confidence vote with 75 votes out of 150 MPs.

Last Friday, the party Most quit the coalition led by Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, who is the leader of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ).

Most had three of its ministers fired by Plenkovic after they failed to support Maric.

"The HDZ and I are ready for an election, but we want to keep stability and it is now up to other parliamentary parties to show if they want the same," Plenkovic said.

He now faces the challenge of gaining a majority in parliament averting another snap election. The last snap election was held in September 2016.

A dispute between HDZ and Most last year toppled the previous government after just six months in office. Endit