Sanader: Salaries and pensions will not be touched

Prime Minister Ivo Sanader today rejected calls for an urgent rebalancing of the state budget in the Parliament, stating that these demands aim to reduce the mass for salaries and pensions, which, he says, is indefensible and unjustifiable at this moment.

"We have guaranteed salaries and pensions in the budget and they will not be touched," Sanader stated, asserting that those advocating for the rebalancing are seeking to reduce expenditure on salaries."This is not justified or defensible at this moment, and whether it will be at some other time, we will see," Sanader said, predicting, however, that the budget will be rebalanced earlier than usual this year. Sanader responded to a question from Željka Antunović (SDP) regarding what specific measures the Government is preparing to preserve jobs and the standard of living for citizens. Antunović warned that according to recent research, one-third of Croatian citizens "barely making ends meet," and a quarter are saving on food. She also pointed out that there were 12.6 percent fewer employed last year than in 2007, that 15,000 new people have registered with the Employment Service, and that another 12,000 are expected by the end of this year.

Dissatisfied with Sanader’s response, Antunović halved a piece of cheese, a loaf of bread, and a kilogram of apples at the parliamentary bench, explaining that this is how much less citizens can get for their money today. Finance Minister Ivan Šuker reproached Ingrid Antičević-Marinović (SDP) for scaring citizens with rising interest rates on loans. The SDP representative claimed that banks intend to raise those rates to 13 percent. "Will you, as the Prime Minister did, call the banks, or will you calmly watch as citizens’ property is seized?" Antičević-Marinović asked Šuker."I am glad you discovered something that neither I nor the governor of the HNB nor the CEOs of the largest banks know," Šuker replied, explaining that he is unclear where the representative got the information about the 13 percent increase in interest rates.

He also stated that the SDP predicted the collapse of the financial system at the moment when the Government was raising guarantees on citizens’ savings. "Do you think it is not normal for the Prime Minister and the relevant minister to talk to someone who wants to impose new burdens on citizens, while the effects of the crisis can be passed on through their own profit?" Šuker asked the representative. He told her not to scare citizens, emphasizing that the Government and the HNB are doing everything to prevent interest rates from rising and to ensure that there is enough money in the domestic market for the restructuring of the economy’s debts. Damir Kajin (IDS) was also interested in when the Government intends to draft a law on tourist land to "prevent corrupt judges from registering that land to tycoons."

"Even Diocletian did not have as much coastline as some Istrian and Croatian tycoons own today," Kajin warned. Sanader replied that the legislative proposal is ready, but has not yet been sent to parliamentary procedure because some comments were made by the European Commission. He announced that if the Government does not reach an agreement with the EC in the next two weeks, the proposal will be sent to procedure in its current form, and that by the end of the current session of the Parliament. (H)