ZAGREB, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Gordan Jandrokovic was re-elected as speaker of Croatian parliament on Wednesday with 143 out of 151 votes of newly elected lawmakers.
The 10th Croatian parliament's founding session came two weeks after the ruling center-right Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) gained another four-year mandate in elections.
The parliament also elected four deputy speakers and all members took the oath of office.
In the afternoon, the parliament opened a discussion on reducing the number of ministries from 20 to 16 in the new government, as proposed by HDZ president and Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic.
"It means fewer ministers, fewer state secretaries, fewer chief of staff and minister's counselors," Branko Bacic, a member of the ruling HDZ, explained in the parliament.
Most members of the parliament wore masks and kept safe physical distance between themselves during the session, which was held in the midst of the second wave COVID-19 outbreak in the country.
In the last 24 hours, Croatia recorded 108 new infections. On Tuesday, Minister of Public Administration Ivan Malenica announced that he had tested positive for coronavirus, the first such case in the government. Enditem
