ZAGREB, February 20, 2018 – The state secretary for demography at the Ministry of Demography, Family, Youth and Social Policy, Marin Strmota, on Tuesday tendered his resignation, dubbing the government’s demographic policy as folklore and flippant. Strmota resigned at a press conference in front of a surprised Minister Nada Murganić, who described the resignation as “a young man’s impatience.”
He did so after Murganić presented the conclusions of the fourth meeting of the Council for the Demographic Revitalisation of Croatia. Strmota said he agreed with the reporters who noted that the same measures were presented three months ago, after the Council’s third meeting. “I agree with you and this is big folklore. After a year and four months in the government, as a demographer, a young man, I think this isn’t serious enough,” Strmota said, adding that he was resigning today “because the state is dying out.”
“This is the worst situation in Croatia since the state exists and, as a young man, as a Croat, a father of two children with an unemployed wife and parents, I don’t believe that anything will be solved with this approach,” Strmota said.
Responding to questions from the press, Murganić said she did not know that he would resign. She said the negative indicators dated to the time before the incumbent government. “However, there is indeed public pressure, there is a wish to do more,” she added.
Before the resignation of Strmota who expressed his dissatisfaction with the current demographic policy, the national statistical office (DZS) has released preliminary figures on demographic trends in Croatia in 2017, which showed that there were 17,614 more deaths than births last year, a record negative population growth in years.
The 2017 statistics are worse than those for 2015, when the negative population growth was -16,050. Expressed in absolute numbers, in 2017 there were 36,647 births and 54,261 deaths.
January 2017 had the worst indicators, with 3,232 births and 6,441 deaths. The “best” month was September, with 3,902 deaths and 3,097 births.
The negative population growth has been on the rise over the past seven years. In 2011, it was -9,822 and it reached -17,614 in 2017.
