HDZ president continues with his tour of Croatia ahead of September’s elections.
HDZ president Andrej Plenković said in Zadar that his party was taking into account all the ideological issues concerning the suffering of the Croatian people during the 20th century, but added that their task was to be focused on economic growth, competitiveness, education and news jobs, reports Index.hr on August 21, 2016.
Plenković said that it was important that HDZ managed to consolidate itself and that it was approaching the elections in September with a high-quality election manifesto focused on economic growth, opening of new jobs, demographic renewal and social solidarity.
Presenting HDZ’s candidates in the ninth parliamentary constituency covering northern Dalmatia and Lika region, Plenković said that Croatia was expected to have a 2.5 percent GDP growth this year, which would be a major improvement over the year before, and added that their ambition was to achieve economic growth of five percent by 2020.
HDZ will increase the employment rate, which currently stands at 60 percent, to 68 percent in four years, which would imply the opening of 180,000 new jobs. Plenković said there was a lot of space for improvement in agriculture, small and medium-sized enterprises, tourism and industry. These are sectors which would be in the focus of his party. He added that they shared basic Christian values of HDZ’s political family, most important of which is solidarity, which means sustainable healthcare and pension systems.
“We want to help people with disabilities, we want to create an intergenerational solidarity that will allow a decent life for all those whose incomes at the moment are not enough to live on. And that is why it is our plan to move forward with indexation of pensions, so that one day the average pension amounts to 60 percent of average salary”, said Plenković.
Economy sectors such as maritime affairs and fisheries are a priority for HDZ and Croatia, which is an Adriatic and a Mediterranean country and must take advantage of all the opportunities to connect with other Mediterranean countries, said Plenković. Although the current political climate in North Africa and the Middle East does not enable quality cooperation, Plenković said that it was possible to cooperate with the more stable parts of the Mediterranean.
Plenković concluded by saying that he expected HDZ to win at least 16 seats in Parliament in the ninth and tenth constituencies which cover Dalmatia.
