"Something unusual will happen"

The negotiating teams of the HDZ and the Homeland Movement are on break today, and analyst Professor Žarko Puhovski believes that the least incredible option is the HDZ government with part of the DP and part of the minorities, so he believes that, as he says, something unusual will happen.

Now it shows how important it is that Zoran Milanović was eliminated from the whole story. Those are all the people he can pick up for himself. Milanovic was a lightning rod around which they could rally, but he went far enough to the right to be acceptable. Both Penava and Most want him. Then you have the paradox that the people of Most and Penava would want Milanović, not SDP, and they would want HDZ, not Plenković. That logic cannot work and therefore something unusual will happen, he adds.

Puhovski says that Most imitates the DP by making its demands more stringent, and considers the argument against SDS S that they were HDZ's helpers incredible and interprets it as disguised nationalism: ''I keep repeating one question: Is accepting such nationalism a realistic price for replacing HDZ?'' Puhovski stated.

He believes that the majority formed by the HDZ, part of the DP and part of the minorities would be a problem for the liberals as well.

"They connected well with the minorities. But I still think that the least incredible version is HDZ's agreement with at least a part of the DP and a part of the minorities. Then the question will be to what extent Milorad Pupovac is ready to play the role of a team player who will take a bullet for the team and withdraw in the name of unity'', said Puhovski.

Pupovac, he says, was attacked from all sides and every now and then there is some kind of Chetnik for, as he states, completely inconceivable reasons.

"It is about the position of the Serbian minority. This easy agreement to relegate the representatives of the Serbian minority to the background means that they are agreeing to the marginalization of the Serbian minority, Puhovski stated for Zagreb's N1 TV.

He believes that despite the high turnout of citizens in the elections, over 60 percent, the HDZ did very well, while he says that the SDP did poorly, and he pointed to Milanović as the main culprit.

"Milanović was more of a hindrance than a helper. They also had too little material for their program. Proclaiming (head of DORH Ivan) Turudić as Croatia's main problem is a bad joke. You cannot, after two weeks of uproar and rallies, keep people believing for months that Turudic's replacement is the main problem.

According to Puhovski, as for the so-called Lex, he says there is no immediate danger at this time, although one article of one law could say anything.

When it comes to the upcoming European elections, Puhovski says that they will be watched from the beach. He believes that European problems are not understood as domestic issues in Croatia. We still don't understand that it's domestic politics. With us, those ideas of the radical right are not considered a special problem because we have it here every day. In Europe, the right will cause a large turnout. This will call into question whether the greens and liberals can mobilize. From Croatia, it will be followed from the beach, Puhovski concluded.