Zagreb: Croatia's newly elected parliament named a speaker on Monday, paving the way for the formation of a new government tasked with speeding the country's fragile economic recovery.
In its first session since November polls, 88 of the assembly's 151 MPs backed Zeljko Reiner of the main conservative HDZ party for speaker.
Prime minister-designate Tihomir Oreskovic, a senior financial manager for global generics giant Teva named by the president last week, was in attendance.
The non-partisan Oreskovic was the candidate of HDZ and a small pro-reformist party, Most ("Bridge"). The two had cobbled together a parliamentary majority six weeks after the November 8 polls failed to produce an outright winner.
Oreskovic has 30 days to secure support for his cabinet. If he does not succeed the president may give him another 30 days and if he fails again another PM-designate can be named.
"For me it is very important that Europe and international (financial) agencies realise that the government is stable, ready to implement changes and reforms," Oreskovic said Monday.
"Through these reforms we will attract investments that will eventually increase and boost Croatia's economy," the 49-year-old political outsider told reporters.
If confirmed by the parliament, Oreskovic would be Croatia's first premier not to hail from one of its two main political power bases -- the HDZ and the centre-left Social Democrats.
The two have alternated in power since the former Yugoslav republic proclaimed independence in 1991, with the Social Democrats at the helm for the past four years.
The small nation with a population of 4.2 million joined the European Union in 2013 and remains one of the bloc's poorest performing economies.
It projects growth of 1.7 percent this year after six years of recession.
AFP
