One month after the parliamentary election, the constituent session of the new, 11th convocation of the Croatian Parliament will take place on Thursday, 16 May.

The Parliament was convened by President Zoran Milanovic for its constituent session. With the parliamentary majority secured, it is expected that the Parliament will open on Thursday and that it will appoint Gordan Jandrokovic as the President Speaker for the third time.

As Speaker of the last convocation, Jandrokovic will preside over the session until his re-election, as this is provided for in the Parliament’s Rules of Procedure.

In addition to the Speaker, the Parliament could also elect five deputy speakers at its first session, one of whom will represent the ethnic minorities. One deputy speaker will belong to the Domovinski pokret (DP) party. Zeljko Reiner is named as deputy speaker from the ranks of the HDZ party.

On Tuesday afternoon, Prime Minister and HDZ leader Andrej Plenkovic said that three of the five deputy speakers of the 11th Parliament will be Furio Radin, who represents ethnic minorities, Zeljko Reiner from the HDZ party and Ivan Penava from the Domovinski pokret (DP) party as the junior partner of the new parliamentary majority.

Two deputy speaker posts belong to the opposition, the SDP and Mozemo parties

After the election of the Speaker, the Parliament must elect the Credentials and Privileges Commission (MIP), which will present a report on the election and the names of the elected MPs.

The newly elected MPs then take the oath and the term of office of the MPs from the previous parliament ends at the same time.

All MPs swear that they will perform their duties conscientiously and responsibly, that they will abide by the constitution and the law in their work, that they will respect the legal system and that they will work for the progress of the state.

The first session of the new Parliament will take place six days after the President gave the mandate to form the new Croatian government to HDZ President Plenkovic, who presented him with 78 signatures of support.

Uncertain when the vote on the government will take place

Although he convened it, President Milanovic will probably not attend the first session. He also did not attend the 2020 session. This was the first case in the history of the opening of Parliament in which the President did not attend.

Despite announcements that this could happen as early as this week, it is currently impossible to say when Plenkovic will present his third government to Parliament.

Plenkovic himself said that “the vote of confidence on the new government could “theoretically” take place as early as Friday, but before that, a law on the ministries and their areas of responsibility should be passed, and if it comes into force, the government could be presented.

Since this procedure requires not only the political will of parliament but also the signature of the president, the government can be presented if he does so immediately, he said.

With this law, the agreement between the HDZ and the Domovinski pokret will be put into practise, according to which the new government will have 18 ministries instead of the previous 16, including new ministries for demography and environmental protection.

New parliament at new address from autumn

The tenth Croatian parliament was dissolved in mid-March, the elections for the eleventh parliament took place on Wednesday 17 April and the HDZ party won a relative victory.

Of the 151 MPs, the HDZ and its partners won 61, the SDP and its partners 42, the Domovinski pokret slate 14, Most 11, Mozemo 10, the Istrian Democratic Party (IDS) and the Independent Platform North two each and Focus one. The ethnic minorities have eight seats.

Through the agreement with 12 MPs from the Domovinski pokret, four MPs from the ethnic minorities and Vesna Vucemilovic, the HDZ has the support of 78 MPs.

The first session of the new parliament will take place in the Croatian Parliament building on St Mark’s Square, which should soon undergo a reconstruction. It is planned that the parliament will move to the premises of the “Franjo Tudjman” Military Academy in Crnomerec during the summer break.

The Croatian Parliament meets regularly between 15 January and 15 July and between 15 September and 15 December. All sessions outside of these dates are referred to as extraordinary sessions.