ZAGREB, Jan 23(Hina) - Leaders of parliamentary parties again failed to agree on the distribution of seats in parliamentary committees, but the club of deputies of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) has accepted that all
parties and MPs who signed agreements of support to the HDZ government should be treated as members of the ruling option, namely the majority quota.
ZAGREB, Jan 23(Hina) - Leaders of parliamentary parties again failed to
agree on the distribution of seats in parliamentary committees, but
the club of deputies of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) has
accepted that all parties and MPs who signed agreements of support to
the HDZ government should be treated as members of the ruling option,
namely the majority quota.#L#
After the parliamentary parties' leaders, who met on Friday morning,
failed for the second time to agree on whether ethnic minorities'
deputies, MPs from the Croatian Party of Pensioners (HSU) and an
independent MP, Ivo Locar, alongside the HDZ, the Croatian Social
Liberal Party (HSLS) and the Democratic Centre (DC), constituted a
parliamentary majority, the HDZ agreed to take those 14 'contentious'
MPs into the parliamentary majority. In return, the HDZ insists on 13
presidential posts of committees for the parliamentary majority, and
11 presidential post will be left for opposition deputies.
Under the previous agreement, the parliamentary majority should have
been given 11 presidential posts of parliamentary committees and seven
places in each committee, while the opposition was to have 13
presidential posts and six representatives in each committee. The
committee for ethnic minorities' rights and human rights is to be
presided by an ethnic minority MP.
After Friday's meeting, the head of the club of the HDZ deputies, Luka
Bebic, said this was the last offer of his party, The opposition is
expected to express its position by noon Monday, or the HDZ will
organise the functioning of the committees and prepare parliamentary
session on its own.
The head of the club of Social Democratic Party (SDP) deputies, Mato
Arlovic, said that from the very start it had been evident that all
parties that signed the cooperation agreement with the ruling HDZ were
a part of the parliamentary majority.
"The HDZ does not obviously trust its coalition partners and wants to
ensure a majority in committees without them," Arlovic said.
Although they previously emphasised that they were a part of the
parliamentary opposition, deputies of the Independent Democratic Serb
Party (SDSS) accepted the HDZ's proposal to enter the quota the
parliamentary majority. Asked whether this implied that the SDSS
definitely became a part of the parliamentary majority, the party
leader, Vojislav Stanimirovic, declined to answer directly.
He reiterated that "nobody from outside would decide whether the SDSS
is in the opposition". Stanimirovic went on to say that his party was
not interested in being given a position of one of the five Sabor vice
presidents, but it would ask that its representative be at the helm of
the parliamentary committee for human rights and ethnic minorities'
rights and to have its representatives in all committees that tackle
issues important for ethnic minorities.
(Hina) ms sb