Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Physical Planning, Construction and State Assets Branko Bacic said on Wednesday that both the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and the Domovinski pokret (DP) party have a common desire to continue their coalition until the end of their term of office.

“Our common desire and activities are aimed at maintaining this coalition until the end of the legislative term,” Bacic told Croatian Radio in view of DP leader Ivan Penava’s statement to public broadcaster HRT that his party would “do everything” to maintain the coalition.

Bacic emphasised that many of the differences that exist in certain situations have been largely overcome by the signing of the coalition agreement.

“We have signed this agreement, which has essentially become the government programme. Everything in the government programme is a detailed interpretation or implementation of the agreement itself. With our programme that we presented in parliament, we presented the coalition agreement and until now we had no intention of publishing it,” he said.

“The DP ministers are working excellently with us”

Regarding cooperation with the DP, Bacic stated that the coalition has proven that it has the “breadth” and “can “find solutions even when it seemed that this would lead to a government crisis”,” such as the appointment of the leader of the Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) Milorad Pupovac as the chairman of the Parliament’s Committee on Human and National Minority Rights.

“Even though the DP was not very happy about it, after one or two meetings we got over it and solved the problem,” he said.

When asked how the events within the DP could disrupt or threaten the ruling coalition and the parliamentary majority, Bacic said he did not want to interfere in intra-party relations.

“What I see at the meetings of the inner Cabinet and the government is that the DP ministers co-operate excellently with us and I do not sense the problems that are repeatedly attributed to the DP, either at the level of the government majority or at the level of the government,” he said.

Regarding the internal party elections in the HDZ and the question of whether he and Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic expect opposing candidates, Bacic said that this depends on the will of the party members and that the elections are open to all members. “The candidacy process is underway and the collection of signatures for candidacies has begun,” he added.

Reconstruction after the earthquake: structural renovation will be somewhat slower

With regard to post-earthquake reconstruction, the Minister emphasised that the construction of replacement housing and the complicated structural renovation work in the areas affected by the March 2020 earthquake in Zagreb, especially in Krapina-Zagorje County, should be completed gradually this year or next year.

The structural renovation will be somewhat slower, he said. “We will have to continue the reconstruction of Zagreb for some time due to the large number of residential buildings, which is an extremely demanding process,” he emphasised.

In Banovina, almost 12,000 sites with 45,000 residential units have been renovated so far, and in Sisak-Moslavina County, a completely new housing stock of 56 apartment buildings with almost 1,000 flats is being built, Bacic said.

The Minister also announced that he will present the National Housing Policy Plan on 27 July.

On Wednesday, Bacic will visit the town of Glina, where he will visit several places where reconstruction work is underway after the December 2020 earthquake, as well as hold a meeting with Mayor Ivan Jankovic and representatives of the Sisak-Moslavina County.