Croatian PM faces no confidence vote this week

Croatia is to hold a no confidence vote this week against Prime Minister Tihomir Oreskovic, threatening snap elections, the main party in the country's fragile ruling coalition announced Monday.

Oreskovic, a former pharmaceutical company executive, faces the vote less than five months after taking over as head of a right-wing coalition cobbled together following indecisive November polls.

The parliament is to vote Thursday on the no confidence motion, filed by the ruling coalition's biggest party, the conservative HDZ, its secretary general told reporters.

"The government has arrived at the end of a blind alley," Domagoj Ivan Milosevic said.

The coalition's work has been marred by disputes between HDZ and its junior partner Most party ever since it took over. 

The crisis escalated last month after Most called for HDZ leader Tomislav Karamarko to quit as deputy premier over an alleged conflict of interest. 

It prompted Oreskovic to call for the resignation of both Karamarko and Most leader Bozo Petrov, who is another deputy premier. But Oreskovic refused to quit, saying he wanted to defend himself against HDZ accusations in the assembly.

If the government falls, which is a likely scenario, Karamarko will avoid his own no confidence vote due by June 18, over a business deal between his wife and lobbyist for Hungary's oil group MOL. 

HDZ insists it would manage to form a new parliamentary majority as they label early elections the "last option". But analysts estimate the party is unlikely to be able to stitch together a new coalition.

If the government falls and a new one is not formed within another 30 days, parliament is dissolved and the president calls new elections.

Early elections would delay implementation of reforms in the European Union's newest member whose economy remains one of the 28-nation bloc's weakest.

Source: AFP