The new City Council in the Croatian second largest city of Split was not inaugurated on Monday, over a month since the local election, because none of the political groups has a majority, so the parties will continue their talks in the coming days.

Mayor Ivica Puljak (Centre) said he would continue talks with the coalition of Smart for Split and Dalmatia, We Can!, New Left, Social Democratic Party (SDP), Most party, and the Independent List of Tomislav Mamic and Branka Ramljak, to form the majority in the City Council.

The Split City Council has 31 seats and a majority requires 16 votes. The Centre party holds seven seats, the Smart, We Can and New Left coalition has three seats, the SDP and Most each have three seats and two seats are held by the Ramljak and Mamic List.  The Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and the Croatian Civic Party (HGS) together have 13 councillors.

Another attempt to form the new City Council will be made in a month, and if it fails, one more attempt will be possible. If a second attempt fails, a new election for the City Council will be called.

Puljak has said earlier that he will not cooperate with the HDZ or councillors connected with that party, claiming that the HDZ and HGS had done incalculable damage to the city.

Puljak said he believed that a cooperation framework would be agreed before the next Council meeting. Speaking to the press after the meeting, he said they had decided to take some more time to improve the cooperation framework, based on which they would launch projects for the city’s benefit.

The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, to discuss the issues that have already been raised.