Croatia's leading opposition party, the Social Democratic Party (SDP), is expected to submit a request to parliament on Wednesday to put on the agenda of its session a proposal to give the government a vote of no confidence, based on the signatures of one-fifth of parliamentary deputies collected so far, SDP officials said on Tuesday.
SDP officials said they started collecting signatures on Monday. The majority of the signatures are expected to be collected at a session of the SDP parliamentary caucus later today.
Since after the departure of Ivica Pancic the SDP now has 55 deputies in parliament, the party is expected to easily collect some 30 signatures (one-fifth of all MPs) that are needed to have the proposal for a vote of no confidence put on the agenda of the parliament's session to start on Wednesday.
Under the parliament's standing orders, after such an item is put on the agenda, a debate and a vote on it must be held in seven days at the earliest and in 30 days at the latest, while the government has eight days to state its position on the request.
If the majority of deputies, or 77 of them, do not vote for the proposal, it will not be possible to repeat the request in the next six months. If, however, the parliament gives the government a vote of no confidence, the President of the Republic will have to call an early parliamentary election within 30-60 days.
The ruling HDZ party has been saying lately that it has a stable majority in parliament, and its partners in the coalition government have been making similar statements.
Even though they have announced plans to support the SDP's initiative to discuss confidence in the government, the opposition Istrian Democratic Party (IDS) and Croatian People's Party (HNS) have still not said if they are willing to support the SDP initiative with their signatures.
HNS leader Radimir Cacic recently said that the best time to hold parliamentary elections would be after the completion of EU entry talks, which is not in line with the SDP's frequent requests for an early election which are connected with the latest initiative.
IDS president Ivan Jakovcic said that his party supported a parliamentary debate on confidence in the government, but that it did not harbour any illusions that the parliament would give the government a vote of no confidence.
Jakovcic also said that the SDP had not secured majority support in parliament for its initiative.
