The failure of the government to keep the state budget deficit under control is the fault of Finance Minister Slavko Linić, who pushed through a ‘savage budget’ without considering the state’s obligations to employees in public and state services, stated Vilim Ribić, president of the Croatian Trade Union Confederation, today.
The state no longer has money, and the ministers who did not save enough are to blame, instead of the ‘chief magician’ Linić, to whom part of the media attributes ‘superhuman potential’ even though he does not know the solutions for getting out of the crisis, Ribić attacked the finance minister at a press conference.
Prime Minister Zoran Milanović approves of such a policy because he does not understand the circumstances and says what is served to him, and the government is not aware that with such an economic policy, Croatia is entering a spiral of decline, Ribić asserted.
The fight against the deficit cannot be at the center of government policy; instead, the state must confront deflationary pressures and stimulate the investment cycle and consumption.
The state must create money that it currently does not have; it must print money in a reasonable amount and devalue the kuna, Ribić stated. Such a policy is increasingly advocated by ‘Keynesians’ in Croatia and the world, as opposed to the previously prevailing neoliberal model that, in the interest of financial capital, insists on austerity measures and cuts in public spending, which is causing increasing resistance throughout Europe.
Ribić did not spare the governor of the Croatian National Bank, Boris Vujčić, who recently criticized proposals to go into ‘money creation’ as a return to exhausted models that failed back in former Yugoslavia, asserting that Vujčić primarily protects the interests of banks.
