ZAGREB, April 25, 2020 – The Social Democratic Party (SDP) on Saturday presented measures designed to help the farm sector in the current coronavirus pandemic, describing the decision to ban Sunday work for shops as an attempt by the HDZ “to improve its rating and curry favour with the far-right and conservative electorate.”
“The question is whether the virus spreads differently and is more dangerous on Sundays than on other days or if the decision by the national civil protection authority is motivated by reasons… of a political nature. It is clear that this is being done with the aim of improving the HDZ’s approval ratings and currying favour with the far-right and conservative electorate. The SDP will no longer unconditionally support what the government is doing. This has gone too far,” MP Peđa Grbin of the largest opposition party said.
Under the government decision, as of Monday, shops will be working normally, apart from those in shopping malls, the exception being food stores and stores with hygiene products, while stores other than those selling food, bakeries and shops that are part of petrol stations will not be allowed to work on Sundays.
This decision was also criticised today by the non-parliamentary Pametno party, which said that it marked the beginning of an election campaign and compromised the reputation of the national civil protection authority.
The SDP also considers as problematic the fact that kindergartens and schools are among the last institutions to be reopened.
“Cafes and Masses are more important to them, and nobody has raised the question of where parents who have to go back to work on Monday will leave their children,” said Grbin, recalling that his party had asked for at least one parent to be allowed to go on paid leave to care for their children, however, its proposal was turned down.
Grbin said that the Constitutional Court had already twice quashed decisions banning Sunday work for shops and that a similar thing would happen again.
He announced that his party would ask the Constitutional Court to assess if changes to the Act on the Protection of the Population Against Infectious Diseases were in line with the Constitution, which, he said, would provide an opportunity for the court to state its position on all measures introduced by the national civil protection authority, which manages the current coronavirus epidemic.
The SDP’s measures to help the farm sector were presented by Sebastijan Svat of the SDP Agriculture Council, who said that the party proposed allocating an additional 20% of budget funds to pay the full amount of farm incentives by May 1 at the latest, as well as the intervention purchase of flower seedlings and surplus vegetables. The party also proposes exempting family-owned farms worth less than €150,000 from the payment of lease on state-owned farmland in 2020, as well as lowering the VAT rate on farming production materials from 13% to 5%.
“This will help farmers, notably small and medium-sized ones, in coping with the crisis. The epidemic has shown that agriculture should be a strategic sector, which it currently is not,” Svat said.
SDP Economy Council chair Josip Tica commented on media reports that due to irregularities found in green farming, Croatia has to pay back 98% of EU incentives for green farming or around three billion kuna allocated to it in the last three years.
“The system of farm incentives and regulations on farming have been in a state of neglect and are not functioning. HRK 3 billion is a huge amount of money in the current situation. That shows how much the government has failed in that regard and to what extent the sector has been neglected,” said Tica.
More SDP news can be found in the Politics section.
