Does HDZ have an answer to Finance Minister Boris Lalovac, asks Slobodna Dalmacija?
Boris Lalovac has become a real enigma for HDZ: the main opposition party simply cannot find an adequate response for the economic policies of Milanović's finance minister. The solution for the crisis with loans in Swiss francs is the best example, reports Slobodna Dalmacija on September 20, 2015.
For weeks, HDZ strongly criticized the decision on the conversion of loans in francs into euros. As late as Monday night, they complained that the ruling coalition is leading the most expensive election campaign in the history of Croatia – alluding that the costs of their pre-election promotion will be paid dearly by all Croatian taxpayers. However, just several days later, they decided to support the government's solution for the franc loans anyway.
In the last few months, SDP has made a number of moves in order to show to the voters that, after three pale years in power, it really is a social democratic party. Instead of a story about who was doing what during the Second World War – which has been served by politicians to voters for a long time – the government launched a new story, about modern Robin Hoods, in which SDP led by Milanović and Lalovac protects the little guy from evil bankers.
It is a concept which HDZ did not expect. The head of the HDZ Committee on Finance Issues Tomislav Ćorić, who is a lecturer of monetary policy at the Faculty of Economics in Zagreb, had long been promoted as the man who, with his youth, freshness and economic knowledge, will be able to match SDP's government ministers. However, the latest debates have shown that HDZ does not have an adequate response to the pre-election offensive by SDP. The main opposition party is aware of this problem.
"It is difficult to fight against policies which give away money to almost everyone. Maybe we made a mistake that we didn't, as it was originally planned, present our economic manifesto before the summer. Perhaps then we would have the initiative, and not SDP. Maybe people would be discussing our projects, and not SDP's", admits a HDZ member of parliament.
An additional problem for HDZ is a personnel havoc in economic department of the main opposition party. Former HDZ finance minister Martina Dalić has left the party dissatisfied with Karamarko's attitude towards public administration reform, which she advocated. The experiment with the return of Đuro Njavro to politics failed miserably. Former deputy prime minister Domagoj Milošević has been pushed aside, and the member of parliament Goran Marić, a sharp critic of banks and bankers, is not well liked by those in power in HDZ.
So, two months before the election, HDZ does not have its economic policy or people who could adequately defend it. Therefore, it is possible that HDZ could lose the elections which they were convinced they would easily win.
