Seven clubs of liberal and left opposition parties on Tuesday initiated a motion for the national legislature's dissolution and for calling an early parliamentary election, accusing the government of being corrupt and non-functional.

The motion comes in the wake of a scandal in which the now former Construction Minister, Darko Horvat, was arrested early on Saturday on suspicion of abuse of office. Horvat resigned the same day.

Presenting the proposal, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) leader Pedja Grbin told a news conference that, apart from the arrest of a member of the government, criminal proceedings had been launched against a Deputy Prime Minister Boris Milosevic, a state secretary, an assistant minister, a head of a department.

“Croatia cannot function that way, it has become a hostage of a group organised around the HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union),” said the opposition leader, adding that Croatia could not breathe while being under the influence of the HDZ.

Croatia is now in very challenging times, marked by the corona crisis and external threats near its border, he said.

Therefore, the seven clubs of MPs submitted this motion for the dissolution of the parliament and for early elections, he said, adding that it was not important who was the first with this initiative, referring to the fact that the club of the conservative Most party had also submitted its proposal for the parliament’s resolution.

Grbin believes that it is good to have as many such proposals as possible, and expressed hope that all the Opposition lawmakers, regardless of their political background, would support this motion.

The head of the Club of Social Democrats, Ivana Posavec-Krivec, joined in the condemnation of the ruling HDZ, and said that Croatia needed new parliamentary polls to topple the corrupt HDZ.

The head of the Green-Left Bloc, Sandra Bencic, said that the only alternative to the current situation would be calling a snap election.

Bencic criticised the Bridge party for sponsoring its own motion for the legislature’s dissolution without any agreement with the rest of the Opposition.

The Croatian Peasants’ Party (HSS) leader, Kreso Beljak, added that the HDZ “is a sect that should be outlawed.”

Another two clubs that supported this initiative for the dissolution of the parliament are the of the Istrian Democratic Party and of the Fokus party.