The Croatian parliament ended its debate on a motion by the opposition party SDP, which called for the dissolution of parliament and the calling of new elections, at around 5 a.m. on Thursday.

In the debate, which lasted more than 14 hours, the ruling HDZ party rejected the opposition’s call for immediate elections and declared that the elections would take place within the time limit and at the time decided by the parliamentary majority.

“We all know that this is an election year, so why are we discussing the dissolution of parliament today?” said HDZ MP Zeljko Reiner.

Reiner: Opportunity for another opposition campaign rally

Parliament is a political stage, our debates are being watched and for the opposition this is an opportunity for another election rally, said Reiner, who considers the proposal to dissolve parliament to be the least reasonable of all the opposition’s interpellations and substitute motions.

Opposition MPs repeated the accusations against the HDZ, the government and the prime minister that they had levelled in recent days and weeks, pointing to numerous scandals involving former HDZ ministers and officials as well as a number of local civil servants.

Scandals occur almost constantly, in the seven years of Andrej Plenkovic’s government no serious reform has been carried out and every day the HDZ is in power is a day lost, opposition MPs said.

In these seven years, 220,000 people have left the country, 750,000 have been pushed to the brink of poverty, 50,000 pensioners have had their bank accounts frozen and the only constant in the government’s tenure is a decline in purchasing power and living standards, as well as social and economic inequality, said SDP MP Sabina Glasovac.

Vidovic: Every day of election postponement is one day too many

Majda Buric (HDZ) has a different view of the past seven years of the government’s term in office.

“During this time, the government has ensured full European integration and what Croatia’s first president Franjo Tudjman started, Plenkovic has completed in the spirit of modern sovereignism,” said Buric.

She pointed out that Croatia is one of the fastest growing economies in the EU and has the highest credit rating ever, as well as stable finances.

Cynicism, a sense of powerlessness, aversion to politics, the lowest level of social trust – this is what the ruling party has brought to the citizens, so every day of postponement is one day too many, said Davorko Vidovic from the opposition Social Democrats.

Every day that the current government is in office is a day of material and spiritual damage for Croatia, said Nino Raspudic from the opposition party Most, who said that the sophisticated corruption structure of the HDZ is like an octopus. “An octopus not only has many limbs with that it can crawl to any place, but it also shoots ink when it wants to confuse its enemies, and this is exactly what you can observe in the ranks of the HDZ,” Raspudic said.

Messages from citizens

MPs from the opposition party Mozemo read out messages sent to them by citizens via social networks about the reasons why elections should be called and the HDZ should be replaced. Sandra Bencic mentioned, among other things, employment based on political and party affiliation and the promotion of the worst workers.

In addition to the HDZ, its policies should also be replaced, said Katarina Peovic (RF), noting that what the government considered its great successes were based on the manipulation of statistics.

The opposition also criticised the prime minister for his refusal to say when the elections will take place. Opposition party MP Most Marin Miletic labelled this as arrogance and Bencic said that the HDZ would have dissolved parliament if they had been sure of their victory.

it is expected that 76 MPs will vote in favour of the SDP’s motion and the dissolution of parliament, but it is unlikely that any of the MPs from the parliamentary majority will vote in favour.