Croatia: Conservatives, center-right agree on coalition

BELGRADE, Serbia (AA) – Nearly a month after elections, Croatia’s ruling conservatives and the center-right MOST alliance reached an agreement Friday for a coalition government with rotating leadership in Parliament.

"We have decided for the Croatian Parliament to be managed in rotation. In this context, it will be represented by the MOST alliance for the first two years and then by the HDZ for the second two-year term," Andrej Plenkovic, head of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), told reporters after negotiations with the MOST alliance in Parliament.

Plenkovic added that Croatia will have a stable government.

MOST representative Bozo Petrov echoed his remarks, saying that Croatia will have a stable government that will implement changes.

Some 3.8 million Croatian voters voted on Sept. 11 in the second election in less than a year.

The election was triggered when the HDZ-led government lost a no-confidence vote in June following a scandal over Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Karamarko's links to a Hungarian oil company.

The new coalition government is expected to win a vote of confidence Monday in parliament.

Croatia joined the EU three years ago but has one of the bloc’s worst-performing economies and is being called on to carry out tough reforms by Brussels.