35 women elected to new Croatian parliament

 Katarina Peovic (Photo: HINA/ Miljenko KLEPAC/ ik)

ZAGREB, July 6 (Hina) – According to incomplete election results, 35 women have been elected to the new 151-seat parliament, coming from various political parties, which is a significantly higher number of women than in the previous parliament.

In the 2016 parliamentary election only 19 women were elected to the Sabor whereas by the end of that parliament’s term, there were 29 female lawmakers in the legislature.

It is quite possible that the number of female parliamentarians changes in the new, 10th parliament after the government is formed and some of the elected male and female MPs are appointed to the executive government.

The highest number of women elected to the parliament are from the Restart coalition, which suffered a major defeat in Sunday’s election, followed by the HDZ, with nine female parliamentarians, and the Homeland Movement led by Miroslav Skoro, with four female MPs. Three women will be representing the We Can! platform in the parliament, two will represent ethnic minority slates, and one will be representing the Bridge party.

The number of female lawmakers from various political parties changes from one parliament to another but there have never been more female lawmakers than their male colleagues, with their number never exceeding one-quarter of the parliament.

According to incomplete results, the HDZ won 66 seats in the ten constituencies in Croatia and is also the winner in the constituency designated for Croats living outside Croatia. The strongest opposition parties, led by the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the RESTART coalition, mustered 41 seats in the 151-seat parliament. The Homeland Movement finished third with 16 seats.

Other parties that have passed the election threshold will have a single-digit number of seats.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic has received the support of ethnic minorities, the Croatian People’s Party (HNS) and the Reformists to form the new government in a preliminary round of talks conducted with them, a government spokesman said on Twitter on Monday.

“The Prime Minister has conducted an initial round of consultations with all elected representatives of ethnic minorities, the HNS and the Reformists. They have given their clear support to the new parliamentary majority and the HDZ government, to be led by Andrej Plenkovic,” spokesman Marko Milic wrote on Twitter.