ZAGREB, June 8, 2020 - Social Democratic Party president Davor Bernardic on Monday accused Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic of pursuing a policy which betrayed national interests because Hungarian PM Viktor Orban was laying claims on Rijeka and that in return, Plenkovic was delivering Croatian oil.
"Orban is Plenkovic's friend. He claims parts of Croatian territory and as a reward, Plenkovic delivers Croatian oil to Budapest," he said in response to questions from the press, calling this a "policy of betraying Croatia's national interests."
As for the announcement from Canada that Croatian citizens there would not be able to vote in Croatia's parliamentary election because of COVID-19, Bernardic said the key task of the government and the state was to make sure that every Croatian citizen could go to their polling station anywhere in the world.
That was one of the reasons why the SDP asked the COVID-19 crisis management team to ensure that citizens can vote, notably in care homes, he said.
Asked if he would sign a green-left coalition petition for the president to convene an extraordinary parliamentary session after the election so as to have a law on the post-earthquake reconstruction of Zagreb passed, Bernardic said that the SDP-led Restart Coalition, after winning the election, would pass that law at parliament's first session.
Our experts from various fields are working on that bill and our goal is that citizens return to their homes as soon as possible, that we activate the construction sector and stop the real estate brokerage currently going on in Zagreb because people have moved out and their properties have been devalued, Bernardic said.
Commenting on a public opinion poll according to which 42% of citizens would not go to the polls, he urged citizens to vote and "say no to the thieving government" because, he said, it concerned every citizen what Croatia would look like and if it would be free of corruption.
