Church gaining influence in politics once again. | Photo: Anadolu Agency/Stipe Majic

“These parliamentary elections were neither won by MOST nor by the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ but by the Catholic Church. Now that they have come to power thanks to the Church, MOST and the HDZ will have repay this debt.”

So said a high-ranking figure in the Croatia’s defeated centre-left coalition Croatia Grows, two days before Christmas, when Croatia finally got a new prime minister-designate, ending six weeks of political deadlock.

As much as these words may sound like the wail of the defeated, seeking an excuse for electoral failure, they are true to an extent.

The Bridge of Independent Lists, MOST, which won 19 of the 151 seats in the November 8 elections - without whose support neither the centre-left nor the centre-right coalitions could form a government - is in a way a project of the Church.

The core figures in MOST, gathered around Bozo Petrov who, after finishing psychiatry studies attended a Catholic seminary, and around Nikola Grmoja, are all closely connected to the Church.