Jurak: The Main Thing for DP Was to Get Close to Resources

Today, the Croatian Parliament is voting on the confidence of the new Government, and the president of HDZ, Andrej Plenković, presented the new ministers and the new government program proposal.

After lengthy negotiations between HDZ and the Homeland Movement, it was agreed that the new Government will have 18 ministries, three of which will belong to the Homeland Movement – the Ministry of Economy, the newly formed Ministry of Demography and Immigration, and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries.

As we previously reported in Lider, some of the main innovations concerning the real sector in the work program of the new coalition Government of HDZ and DP, and within the scope of the Ministry of Economy, which will be headed by DP’s minister Ante Šušnjar, include a guarantee fund for the improvement of industry, guarantees for the processing industry of 50 million euros for energy transition, support for international fairs, and investment in research and development projects, expansion of LNG, as well as higher salaries and pensions.

However, regarding the program of the new Government, compared to the program of the previous Government, the new program is a continuity of the previous policy, believes political analyst Karlo Jurak.

– There are no major changes here, nor in terms of the reality and feasibility of the program – says Jurak.

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Karlo Jurak

photo Ratko Mavar

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Regarding the division and new ministries, Jurak emphasizes that the Homeland Movement ultimately got the ‘business’ part of its wishes, and less of the ‘ideological’ part.

– It seems that their main concern was to get close to resources, so the economy, energy, and agriculture can be interpreted through that prism in their hands. Demography is just a ‘fig leaf’ to express the ‘wet dreams’ of DP’s ideological leaders – Jurak briefly but significantly comments.

When asked how the new Government program, especially the economic aspects of the program, will affect the private sector and entrepreneurs in Croatia, Jurak responds:

– Potential challenges are part of a broader story, that is, the regional, continental, and global context, and little of it depends on the Government of the Republic of Croatia itself. Therefore, to comment on it as some eventual cut in relation to previous trends, I think is completely misguided.