ZAGREB, October 19, 2018 – Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Friday, in a comment on the first two years of his government’s term, that his main goal over the past two years had been to maintain political stability, which he said did not mean keeping the status quo, and that in the next two years he wanted to see the atmosphere in society improve, with more tolerance, inclusiveness and dialogue.
“The most important thing for me in the first two years of the term has been to maintain political stability. Regardless of the attacks, those who know better what it entails, understand that it does not entail a status quo. Quite the contrary. Stability means that you have a political majority that enables all institutions, primarily the government and the ministries, to implement the government’s platform,” Plenković told reporters in Brussels after attending a Europe-Asia summit.
He went on to say that his government’s platform was based on three elements – strong fiscal consolidation, structural reforms, and investment.
Plenković said his government was the first one to achieve a budget surplus. “We’ll see what happens with shipbuilding, and I hope that this year, too, we will have a surplus.” Fiscal consolidation has made it possible for Croatia to exit the Excessive Deficit Procedure and see its credit rating improved, he said. “We have sent a message that this government knows what it is doing and that it plans, spends rationally and takes account of the revenue side of the budget. Fiscal consolidation is a precondition for all other processes,” he said.
Speaking of structural reforms, he underlined six reforms: “Education reform, whose experimental stage has begun, pension reform, which was put on the parliament’s agenda earlier today, three rounds of tax reform, which have reduced the tax burden on citizens and the business sector by 6.4 billion kuna, the judicial reform, where a part of the job has already been done, the reform of the health sector, and improvement of the business environment.”
“This leads to the third element of the government platform – investments,” he said, adding that this year investments in the country totalled two billion kuna, the most in the country’s history.
Plenković also mentioned the tourist season, the most successful so far, a continued decline in public debt, the growth of employment despite emigration, the lowest unemployment rate ever, the growth of the average monthly salary by more than 700 kuna, and a rise in pensions of 6.7%.
“All macroeconomic indicators are good. With that in mind, I can say that we have achieved a lot. One can always do more and do better, but that’s why the term lasts four years and we will continue working hard.”
Plenković stressed that the slim parliamentary majority had not affected the government’s work at all.
As for the next two years of his government’s term, he said that he would want to see a better climate in society “with more inclusiveness, and not only of a social nature, but more dialogue, tolerance and mutual respect.” “But that, of course, is not only up to the government,” Plenković said.
