Parliamentarian Damir Habijan will be the new Economy and Sustainable Development Minister, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic confirmed in Brussels on Friday.

“Habijan has experience in corporate law and the world of business and is very serious,” Plenkovic said.

He added that Habijan had already accepted the nomination and received support from members of the ruling coalition.

Habijan will be introduced to the parliamentary majority on Monday, after which his nomination will be discussed by the HDZ party bodies, Plenkovic said.

“I will then write to the Parliament Speaker and request an extraordinary parliamentary session. We have agreed in principle that it could be held on Wednesday. The Economy Committee will meet first, after which a vote will be taken at a plenary session and everything should be completed by Wednesday afternoon,” Plenkovic said.

Habijan was born in 1982 and graduated from the Zagreb Faculty of Law in 2007. From 2007 to 2020 he worked as a lawyer at a law firm in Varazdin, specialising in corporate law and cases involving finances and credit institutions. He speaks English.

He is a member of the Croatian Parliament and of the Varaždin City Council, and in the 2017-2021 term he was the president of the Varazdin City Council.

Habijan has led the HDZ party branch in Varazdin since 2016.