“We are talking a billion kuna in revenues which could have been generated in the last month alone. Advent is the time when people spend more. It was an irrational decision because people working in this sector are now out in the field cooking and handing out thousands of meals to earthquake victims and they are in direct contact. On the other hand, the government, who imposed these rigorous epidemiological measures on movement, lifted these measures at the time of this disaster,” Skoro told the press during a visit to the earthquake-hit Banovina region.
It is normal that bar and restaurant owners are angry over “double standards” used by the government and the national coronavirus response team, he said.
The Voice of Entrepreneurs appealed to the government on Friday to say what businesses could expect after January 8 when the coronavirus restrictions imposed for the Christmas and New Year holidays expired. The restrictions have in the meantime been extended until the end of the month.
Before his tour of Banovina, Skoro had visited a warehouse in Kutina where Homeland Movement volunteers were distributing parcels with food, clothing and other necessities for earthquake victims.
He said that the Homeland Movement had distributed about 1,200 tonnes of food and hygiene products. He added that aid was still coming in and that some donors wanted to distribute aid only through the Homeland Movement, citing an aid delivery worth one million euro that recently arrived from Austria.
Skoro also said that his party would support an initiative to set up a commission of inquiry into post-war reconstruction, after it emerged that many of the houses repaired after the 1991-1995 Homeland War had collapsed in the 29 December earthquake that struck the Banovina region. He, however, recalled that previous such commissions had worked along the lines “if you don’t want to establish facts, set up a commission.”
