PM talks presidential election, health unions, Bosnia

Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic on Thursday said that it was not clear to him how someone like Zoran Milanovic, a former prime minister and leader of the Social Democratic Party, who he said indebted the country for HRK 71 billion, could run for president.

Plenkovic made this statement to reporters while commenting on the fact that unions in the health sector did not manage to win a pay rise even after three months of negotiations and an agreement in principle with Health Minister Milan Kujundzic.

The prime minister did not agree with a reporter's comment that there seemed to be money for everyone except workers in the health sector.

"I wouldn't say there isn't any money for doctors and nurses. The broader context is clear and precise, this government has a healthy economic growth. We are growing 3% and decreasing the debt by 3% at the same time," Plenkovic said before the cabinet's two-week recess.

"Milanovic's government indebted us for HRK 71 billion. It's not clear to me how someone can run (for president) after such an 'acquis'?...This government is generating budget surpluses, during our term the average wage increased three times more than in the terms of Tihomir Oreskovic, Zoran Milanovic and Jadranka Kosor together," he claimed.

With regard to negotiations with unions, he underscored  that there are three key elements - the base pay, indexation and supplements. He underlined that each agreement with any branch union always means direct financial consequences in all other branches. "It is necessary to find the funding for all this and that isn't easy. We are aware of the drain of doctors and nurses, and we are endeavouring to find solutions that will help as maintain fiscal consolidation," he added.

"That is why we will talk with doctors and nurses and others and... agree on a comprehensive approach with all the ministries. We are endeavouring to spend as much as we earn and not spend what we don't have. The easiest thing would be to increase everyone's wages, to... borrow. Then we would see what our rating and image in economic and financial institutions was. We will do what we can but in a way that is just toward everyone," said Plenkovic.

He underscored that preparations for the 24th anniversary of the Storm military operation on August 5 were going very well and are being coordinated between the Veterans' Affairs Ministry, the Defence Ministry and Interior Ministry. He underscored that the government cares a lot about the dignity of the Homeland War and war veterans as well as a better status for soldiers and police officers.

"The entire government will be in Knin (for the anniversary)... and in that way we are sending a clear message how much we care about these key historical events that gave Croatia its freedom and development, democracy and, in the end, the prosperity we are enjoying today as against the early 1990s when the country was in the Homeland War," Plenkovic said.

Leaders in Bosnia and Herzegovina need to defuse tensions, we are friendly countries 

Speaking about the harsh reactions to an article in the Jerusalem Post, eventually corrected, which claimed that President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic said that Bosnia and Herzegovina is controlled by radical Islam, Plenkovic said that leaders in Bosnia and Herzegovina should work on defusing tensions.

That is not good because "Croatia's entire policy toward Bosnia and Herzegovina is well-meaning, with respect for our neighbouring country and all three constitutive peoples," he said.

Plenkovic said that leaders in Bosnia and Herzegovina, particularly the two members of the Presidency who criticised Grabar-Kitarovic, should "refrain from statements like that" and need to defuse tensions, particularly since it was shown later that the claims attributed to the president weren't true.

"We will be connected forever. We need to strengthen our relations and not resort to rash reactions and cause tensions," he underscored.

The prime minister went on to say that security services in the two countries have to cooperate "in everything that can have anything to do with terrorism" because they are located on the same migrant route.

"We are a country that is protecting its borders without raising barricades, fences, razor wire, barbed wire. That was our political choice. I would not want razor wire fences toward a friendly country and we will not do that," he said.

Internal party election in HDZ is third priority

"The president (Grabar-Kitarovic) will certainly be a candidate in the presidential election. She herself said that should would announce her candidacy after Victory Day but I don't expect that that will be in Knin," he said.

The decision to announce her candidacy is up to her and I expect unity, engagement and support in the HDZ party in the coming presidential election.

Asked when intra-party elections were expected in the HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union, Plenkovic said that the party was exclusively focused on the presidential election and that the time of the intra-partys election would be decided after that.

"Everything else will come later. We have a big responsibility to chair the European Union and we have to realise a series of programmes," he said, adding that at the moment intra-party elections were third on the agenda of priorities.

HDZ is centre-right party

Plenkovic asserted that when he took the helm of the HDZ in 2016, he took on the social and political responsibility to properly position the party and that's centre-right.

"For the health of the people in Croatia, the HDZ should be where (former president) Franjo Tudjman left it, and that was not the extreme right," he claimed.

Text: Hina

News | Plenkovic Andrej