Croatia’s ruling conservatives, the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), agreed mid-week to form a coalition with the far-right Homeland Movement (DP). With the European parliamentary election pending next month, this moves the country further to the right.
The coalition pact, which was announced on Wednesday, comes within weeks of an inconclusive national election. While the dominant HDZ party won most of the votes cast, it did not gain enough support to retain control of the Croatian parliament on its own.
The new governing coalition, which is expected to be approved by parliament in the coming week, will mark the third consecutive term of office for Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic. The centre-right HDZ has more or less held office since Croatia gained independence.
Homeland Movement is a recently formed political party backed mainly by radical nationalists and social conservatives who were formerly HDZ members. The relatively new party is led by Ivan Penava, the extreme-right, hard-line mayor of the eastern town of Vukovar, which was destroyed during Croatia’s war for independence after it split from the former Yugoslavia.
Now, for the first time in years, a party representing minority Serbs will not be a part of the Croatian government, the DP having opposed their inclusion. This omission has raised concerns about ethnic tensions that go back to the independence conflict of the 1990s.
Croatia has been an EU member since 2013, and joined the Schengen passport-free travel area and the eurozone last year.
