Internal conflicts at the populist Zivi Zid party came to a head on Thursday, with two of the party's three MPs in the 151-seat parliament announcing their resignations in a spat with the party head Ivan Vilibor Sincic over the party's single European Parliament seat they won last month.

Although Sincic, who is a member of Parliament, had won the largest number of preferential votes, the party said they would award the seat to the top listed candidate and party secretary, Tihomir Lukanic – a decision vocally opposed by their MP Branimir Bunjac, who came in second in preferential voting.

On Thursday, Bunjac’s open rebellion was joined by MP Ivan Pernar, who announced that he would leave the party, reducing it to a single seat in Parliament, in protest against what they both claim is authoritarian style of party management led by Sincic and his wife – and influential party member – Vladimira Palfi.

Bunjac was swiftly suspended, and on Wednesday, everyone involved gave statements to the media – for N1 television, Palfi said that the affair amounted to a smear attack against her; Pernar issued an ultimatum saying him and Bunjac would leave the party within 24 hours unless the suspension is overturned; Bunjac repeated his refusal to relinquish his MEP seat; and Sincic gave a video statement via Facebook denouncing both Bunjac and Pernar and announcing internal party election.

On Thursday, Pernar confirmed to parliament reporters that him and Bunjac would leave the party, while Bunjac appeared on N1 television minutes later to say that he is yet to make up his mind to resign from party membership ‘within the next 24 hours.’

The party (whose name literally translates as ‘Living Wall’ and is referred to in English as ‘Human Shield’ by the state agency Hina) grew out of an activist group which organised sit-ins to protest against a wave of foreclosures and evictions during Croatia’s years of economic recession in the 2010s.

Modelled after similar movements around Europe at the time, most notably the Podemos party in Spain, Zivi Zid first rose to prominence in late 2014 when its leader, Ivan Vilibor Sincic, then a 24-year-old newcomer, surprisingly ended up third in the country’s presidency election, winning more than 16 percent of the vote.

In opposition throughout its entire history, the party’s populist message steadily gained support, culminating in the last parliamentary election in 2016 in which the party won five seats – although two of their MPs have since abandoned the party after taking seats.

Last month, the party won 5.6 percent of the vote in the European election, winning a single seat within Croatia’s 12-seat allocation for the European Parliament. Not belonging to any European political bloc, Zivi Zid had penned a cooperation agreement with Italy’s populist Five Star movement and several other anti-establishment European parties.