ZAGREB, May 6, 2018 - The coordinating body of Social Democratic Party (SDP) mayors and municipal and county heads discussed a utility services bill with which they are not satisfied, as well as other bills which concern local government and impact their budgets, they said in Čakovec on Saturday at the end of their third meeting.
"We were the first to raise our voice against the harmful utility services bill which was aimed at the privatisation of public services and would have resulted in more expensive public services for our citizens, and we are glad that most of our objections were sustained," the leader of the coordinating body, Pregrada Mayor Marko Vešligaj, told reporters. He added, however, that they were still not satisfied with the bill and would move amendments.
Commenting on a mountain regions bill, he said Croatia did not have a regional development policy and that this bill would result in bigger centralisation as the government decided which regions qualified.
Responding to questions from the press, Primorje-Gorski Kotar County head Zlatko Komadina said the opposition SDP could form coalitions with left and centre parties, but that a grand coalition with the ruling HDZ was not possible.
A press release issued after the two-day meeting in Čakovec said SDP president Davor Bernardić had emphasised that local government units where the SDP was in power had the lowest unemployment and emigration rates in the country. He underlined the need to draw up measures to help indebted citizens with blocked bank accounts that would be implemented by local government units. He said the criteria envisaged that only the debts of those who really had nothing, and not those with villas and yachts, should be written off.
