By Vuk Tesija
The ruling Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, has regained its slender majority in Croatia’s parliament after Homeland Movement MP Josip Dabro – who is charged with violating the rights of a child and possessing illegal weapons – was released from custody on Monday.
He had been in custody since Thursday due to the risk of influencing witnesses.
Leaving Osijek prison at around 3:30 p.m., after all the witnesses to the crimes he is charged with had been questioned, Dabro did not give a statement. But he told the gathered journalists that he felt “like a bullet”.
He was detained after videos were leaked of him firing off a Kalashnikov and giving his underage son a weapon.
His party, the DP, is the junior partner to the centre-right HDZ whose coalition government remained without a majority for four days, while Dabro was in custody.
But its lack of a majority was not put to a test because parliament did not meet during that time.
After last week’s parliamentary session at which his immunity was lifted, Dabro said that when he got out of prison, he would reconsider support for the ruling coalition, which holds 75 of the 151 seats in parliament.
But according to the Homeland Movement, which stood by its MP the entire time, the stability of the coalition and Dabro’s vote in parliament were not at risk.
Berto Salaj, a Political Science Professor at the University of Zagreb, told BIRN that the DP was in no hurry for an early election.
“Their support is very weak. They would like to show themselves to be an important factor, not just a pendant of the HDZ, but they won’t go all the way because they know this means new elections – and then they could disappear from parliament,” Salaj said.