Croatian parties meet:

Political parties in deadlocked Croatia relaunched talks Friday to form a government and select a new premier, nearly six weeks after an election that failed to produce an outright winner.

The negotiations come after Bozo Petrov, leader of the small party Most (meaning ‘Bridge’ in Croatian) the likely political kingmakers, set next Tuesday as a deadline to reach a decision, suggesting there should otherwise be fresh elections.

Officials from Most, the incumbent Social Democrats and the main opposition conservative HDZ met in Zagreb to try to reach a deal on reforms that would be implemented by a new government.

Later on Friday they were to discuss who should become prime ministerdesignate, with Most insisting it should be someone non-partisan.

The HDZ narrowly won the most seats in the Nov 8 election but failed to achieve the majority required in the 151-seat parliament to form a government without support of other parties, leading to weeks of horse-trading.

According to Croatia’s constitution, President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic must therefore consult with parties to assign a PM-designate who has the support of the majority of MPs.

The president’s next round of talks comes on Tuesday.

“There will be no more stalling ... Either we will know the prime ministerdesignate on Tuesday or we will have a new vote,” Petrov told reporters late Thursday. (AFP)