PM Plenkovic says gov't will consider raising minimum wage

Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Saturday that next week the government would discuss a package of measures to raise minimum wage.

Responding to questions from the press after opening a student dormitory in Varazdin, he said the government would discuss other measures as well because it wanted to enable people to live in a dignified manner.

"Too many people, unfortunately, live on the brink of poverty. We are aware of that, and without social solidarity, without raising the incomes and living standards of young people, workers and pensioners, we can hardly make our fellow citizens feel that things are improving with good macroeconomic trends alone."

PM Plenkovic said the effects of this year's tax reforms were visible in spending, which in turn generated growth, and recalled that profit tax was cut last year.

"In that way we showed how much we want to relieve entrepreneurs, those who have an idea, a programme, a plan, who want to make a concrete effort to contribute to themselves as well as society as a whole. I think that effect is clear now. Debt reduction, deficit reduction, continuous economic growth, employment reduction. I think those are frameworks we must continue to see to. Croatia has reduced youth unemployment from 49% in 2013 to 26% in 2017. Those are big steps forward and we must pursue that."

Asked to comment on the election of the president of the Croatian Football Federation, PM Plenkovic said sports should be totally depoliticised and that it was important to start dealing with the problems in Croatian football, including hooliganism.

He said he hoped the people running the Federation would take into account how much its activity could have a symbolic, transforming effect on processes in society.

Text: Hina

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