ZAGREB, September 8, 2019 – The opposition Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Osijek on Sunday presented its programme for the development of the eastern Slavonia region until 2030, saying that over 50,000 people have left the region since the launch of the government’s Slavonia, Baranja and Srijem project and that they could see “no benefits for the citizens” in the government project.
“When the SDP comes to power, we will revive agriculture through our reform. Family farms will receive 20% higher incentives than they do now and will receive them in time,” SDP leader Davor Bernardić said after a meeting of the party’s regional branches.
Responding to questions from the press, he did not explicitly say whether the SDP, if it came to power, would scrap the government project. He said they could see “no benefits for the citizens” in it and that 50,000 people have left the region in search of a better livelihood since the project was launched.
“People are living harder and harder. Wages haven’t gone up, and farmers have difficulty marketing their produce. The main problem with this project is that Croatia has absorbed slightly less than 15 percent of EU funding available to it. If we had begged we would have got more,” the SDP chief said.
The SDP’s plan aims to make Slavonia “a rich and successful region with happy and satisfied people” within the next ten years, focusing on the development of agriculture.
“Slavonia is devastated. Our goal is to employ and bring back people, especially those who have gone abroad, and we will do that by boosting the development of agriculture and by building transport infrastructure and supporting strategic industries,” Bernardić said.
More SDP news can be found in the Politics section.
