Some words from the outgoing Prime Minister.
Outgoing Croatian Prime Minister and SDP president Zoran Milanović has unofficially started his campaign to win another term as party president, reports Jutrnji List and Vecernji List on January 16, 2016. While visiting Čakovec yesterday, he said that for eight years he had not been able to find anyone who would want to debate him, since everybody just runs away. “I also have to bear in mind – this is SDP, and I am not in a position to smear my opponents, so I will not be doing that. This is not HDZ, which is a catastrophe which we should be firmly opposed to”, he said.
Talking about future Prime Minister Tihomir Orešković, he said that Orešković would not be making any decision. “Out of respect for someone like him, I would have a debate with him, but unfortunately he is not the one making decisions, so I cannot comment on something which has no political importance”, said Milanović talking about future measures which Orešković announced at a meeting with foreign banks and investors in Austria.
“It is well-known who are the agents of big business and who works for them. We as social democrats have firmly and even brazenly opposed some of the these sharks. In Zagreb, I have talked with some bankers, but primarily with Croatian members of their managing boards. I am not a xenophobe, but I have refused to talk with foreigners and ‘governors’ coming from Vienna and Milan, even though I like Italy and Austria”, he said.
He commented on the fact that the future prime minister first presented his measures to bankers, and not to Croatian citizens. “Mr. Orešković, who was a good financial officer of Teva on one level, which is not the highest level, is not the one making decisions. We are a small country and it is important that the leader of government has that authority and that it is recognized abroad. I knew on whose behalf I speak. I spoke on behalf of the party, the coalition and the government which I led and I had authority. Therefore, this is somehow strange to me”, said Milanović.
The outgoing Prime Minister also said that he did not believe that the new government would abolish the so-called second pillar of the pension system. “People, this is your private property, savings of all of you who are younger than 50 and are employed. These are your future pensions, and mine as well”, he added.
“SDP is a democratic party, the electoral principle of ‘one member, one vote’ was my idea, and we will extend it to other levels of the party. Many within SDP were opposed to this principle seven or eight years ago, but I was able to push it through”, he said.
