ZAGREB, June 20, 2020 – Prime Minister and HDZ leader Andrej Plenkovic said on Saturday that the HDZ would invest maximum effort in the reconstruction of Zagreb and its historical centre damaged in the March 22 earthquake.
Speaking at a presentation of party candidates running in the July 5 elections in Constituency No. 1, Plenkovic said that the damage to the city had been estimated at €11.5 billion euros.
He said it would take at least ten years for the city to be reconstructed in such a way “to be safe and for its citizens to be given what they need after that big natural disaster.”
Plenkovic recalled his government’s results, citing an increase in employment and a decline in unemployment, a healthy economic growth, an increase in wages and pensions, etc.
He said that this was the reason why his party had wanted to hold parliamentary elections in the summer, when the intensity of the COVID-19 pandemic is lowest, to win voters’ trust and continue working to the benefit of all citizens.
Plenkovic said that his government would continue reducing taxes, noting that the tax burden on citizens and the business sector had been reduced in the amount of nine billion kuna.
He went on to say that his government would reduce income tax and VAT on all food.
The HDZ wants to create conditions by the end of the term for the average wage to grow from the current HRK 6,700 to HRK 7,600, to raise the minimum wage to HRK 4,250 and to secure an additional HRK 10 billion for active employment measures, as well as create an additional 100,000 jobs, he said.
This will be possible to achieve through the EU’s new seven-year budget which, in its current form, envisages 11.5 billion euros for Croatia, he said.
In addition to that, we will get more than €10 billion through the EU’s plan for economic recovery, said the PM.
