This is not surprising, considering he comes from a large corporation and is calling for cuts and austerity measures
Not everyone seems to share the enthusiasm surrounding the new PM designate Tihomir Tim Orešković. As reported by Croatian Radio Television HRT, union leaders are very wary of the new PM designate because he is coming from a big corporation. Krešimir Sever, leader of the Independent Croatian Union stated is calling for caution because “All the reforms he is calling for mean added pressure on the public sector, new round of privatisation, abandonment of some social rights, cuts, dismissals and all of them will break over the backs of our citizens”.
“We shouldn’t allow reforms where we will become hostages of a business mentality helped by cold economic analysts that only see people as numbers that help them achieve better results” Sever added.
Vilim Ribić from the Independent Union of Research and Higher education was not holding back: “He will easily dismiss the interests of the common people over the interests of the circles he is coming from. But the good news is, because he openly represents large capital and its interest, that is much better than what we had in the last four years – representatives of the very same capital but under the mask of social democracy” he said.
Since cuts are already one of the main topics since the PM designate announcement, union representatives are of course raising their voice and they see them as measures that are counter productive: “Cuts never bring any results. Cuts have been holding Europe in stagnation for the last seven years and they’ve caused a four year decrease of GDP in Croatia” Ribić stated.
Union representatives are hoping social dialogue will continue since it did not exist during the reign of Milanović and his partners, however if the new government does not continue with a new round of dialogue, they can expect new protests, both Union representatives were adamant.
And while we are waiting for the new government to be formed and the confirmation of first steps by the new Prime Minister designate which should help stop the expansion of public debt and which will most probably include cuts and austerity measures in all public sectors, it will be interesting to follow the reaction of various unions since so far they were the first to hinder any changes. And we cannot allow any positive business mentality in this country, can we?
