The ninth assembly of Croatian parliament ended its last session on Monday with the majority of MPs voting for the parliament’s dissolution prior to the parliamentary election.

It is now up to President Zoran Milanovic to determine the date of the election, which has to be held within 30 to 60 days of parliament’s dissolution, meaning the election will be held as early as June 21 and no later than July 12.

Meanwhile, the Zagreb city opposition spent the night outside the parliament building protesting against parliament dissolving without passing a law on the reconstruction of the city after the centre was devastated by an earthquake in late March.

Representatives of six opposition parties and their sympathisers jeered at the arriving MPs on Monday morning, with city councilor and leader of the Zagreb je Nas (Zagreb is Ours) party, Tomislav Tomasevic, saying that those in power had had enough time to draw up the bill, put it to public consultation, and pass it today.

“Lex Agrokor was adopted in three weeks and they haven’t been able to adopt this in two months,” Tomasevic said.

If the parliament is dissolved, the law can be adopted only in September or October, and until then citizens are left hanging, he said, adding that the HDZ cared more about a few more seats than about the people affected by the earthquake.

Given that some 26,000 people have reported damage caused by the earthquake, this is a defeat of this parliament, said Rada Boric of the New Left party.

Tomasevic said the reason was the political trade-offs between Mayor Milan Bandic and the ruling HDZ party’s Zagreb branch.