ZAGREB, May 27, 2020 - The Social Democratic Party (SDP) Restart coalition on Wednesday presented its election platform "Agenda for a Start'  for the 5 July parliamentary election with SDP leader Davor Bernardic saying that they are the only true force for a change and a restart.

"It's time for a new policy, a policy of courage, sincerity, and trust. An election awaits us. The choice does not seem to be that difficult. Order or chaos. Honesty or corruption. Justice and equality before the law or protection for the privileged," said Bernardic accompanied by his coalition partners - Silvano Hrelja, leader of the Croatian Peasants' Party (HSU), Anka Mrak Taritas of the Glas party, Goran Aleksic of the Snaga party and leader of the Croatian Peasants' Party (HSS) leader Kreso Beljak.

He announced that the Restart coalition government would make decisions on key issues in its first week in power that should have been resolved prior to the election.

"We will extend job keeping measures through a law on shorter working hours. We will adopt a law on a one-year moratorium on loan repayments, a decision on providing loans by financial institutions for small and medium-sized enterprises and a set of measures for the socially most vulnerable citizens who count for more than a million and we will send the bill on Zagreb's post-quake reconstruction on the fast track to parliament," Bernardic said while listing the first steps if they won the election.

He said that in the past five years not one serious reform has been conducted in the country.

The attempted pension reform failed. The education reform does not exist and we will remember the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) term in government for a wave of strikes and resistance by the entire education community, said Bernardic.

Taking stock of the current government's term, Bernardic said that today, Croatia had more than a million people living on the verge of poverty, half of them being pensioners. The health system is burdened with scandals and amassed debts of HRK 9.1 billion.

Our objective, he said, is to increase pension allowances by introducing guaranteed pension allowances of 70% of the average wage, increase the minimum wage to HRK 4,000, and increasing the level non-taxable income to HRK 5,000 which will immediately lead to a wage increase for more than 700,000 workers, he said.

ZAGREB, May 24, 2020 - Social Democratic Party (SDP) Davor Bernardic, who on Sunday visited Split as a stop of on his party's campaign trail, said that the SDP agenda included the construction of retirement homes with about 10,000 accommodation units.

Bernardic said that the SDP planned the construction of new senior homes so that "pensioners, whose numbers are growing in Croatia from day to day, can have a dignified life in their senior age."

He said that the SDP agenda includes also the construction of flats that can be rented by undergraduates, young families, young researchers, and others who cannot live in their home towns, and in this context he criticised the currently high rent prices of flats in Split and other cities.

Bernardic said that the whole agenda of this strongest Opposition party would soon be unveiled and that it would include plans for digitisation of the country, fight against corruption, the establishment of an office for suppression of tax fraud, which he called the USKOK for tax frauds, in reference to the current Office for Suppression of Corruption and Organised Crime (USKOK), the overhaul of the judiciary, and legislation on checking the origins of someone's wealth.

During his stay in Split, Bernardic especially criticised the situation in the city's senior home in Vukovarska Street where 18 of the residents died in recent weeks after the coronavirus made its way to that institution. He accused the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) of the developments in that home and for the fact that no one had been brought to justice for that.

The SDP chief would not comment on anything to reporters about the HDZ response that when it came to ethics, Bernardic should be aware that he himself had been found by the Conflict of Interest Commission to violate the principle of transparent action. In late 2019, the Conflict of Interest Commission recently established that Bernardic violated the principle of transparent action when, in 2014, he accepted a scholarship from the Cotrugli Business School worth HRK 263,000 because he received the scholarship as a politician and not as an expert.

Asked by the press about those HDZ comments and whether he had paid back the "contentious (scholarship) grant", he said that he did not want to comment any more "on the most corrupt government in the Croatian history".

ZAGREB, May 23, 2020 - Social Democratic Party (SDP) leader Davor Bernardic said on Saturday in Dubrovnik that voting for the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) meant voting for corruption.

Responding to Plenkovic's statement in an interview that a vote for Miroslav Skoro was a vote for the SDP, the opposition leader thus reiterated his accusations against the HDZ.

He went on to say that during the four-year of the term of the current government Plenkovic "has hidden behind Brussels, his aides, various task forces, the virus, and crisis management teams."

Commenting on Plenkovic's statement that the ban on Sunday work will be lifted if it is established that it is no longer required epidemiologically, but that he is for Sunday to be a non-working day, the SDP chief said that Plenkovic could not decide whether to have working or non-working Sundays.

"He could not take a position on important decisions for Croatia. Therefore, he cannot be at the helm of Croatia, and he will not be after 5 July," Bernardic said at a news conference in Dubrovnik before an SDP meeting.

Bernardic accused the Plenkovic government of lack of care for the tourism sector and promised that as soon as the SDP won the election, that party would reduce Value Added Tax in tourism and hospitality to 10%. 

ZAGREB, May 22, 2020 - Social Democratic Party (SDP) leader Davor Bernardic said during a visit to Sisak on Friday that the SDP-led coalition would assume responsibility for the country after the July 5 election, and that President Zoran Milanovic's statement that he would not go to the polls was a symbolic gesture of neutrality.

Commenting on the political situation in Sisak, Bernardic said that its Social Democrat mayor Krstina Ikic Banicek was working miracles without any support from the state.

"Not only has the state not implemented the necessary reforms, but it also has not even let the town use the premises of the former steelworks for a technology incubator," he said, adding that nonetheless many local projects had been completed, bringing Sisak back to life.

Milanovic's statement symbolic gesture of neutrality

Commenting on President Zoran Milanovic's statement that after the elections he would not be receiving individual members of parliament for consultations in his office, Bernardic said that it was a responsible message and that the president acted in line with the Constitution.

As for Milanovic's statement that he would not go to the polls, Bernardic said that it was "important for as many voters as possible to go to the polls and show what they think about what we have been witnessing for the past four years - unprecedented political corruption and lack of reforms."

Asked whether the SDP's slates would also include party members who had been suspended, he said that all party members who were willing to work in the interest of citizens would be on the party slates.

He also noted that he would not be commenting on Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic's statements until July 5, after which, he said, there would be no need to do so anymore.

ZAGREB, May 22, 2020 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Friday that President Zoran Milanovic's statement that he might not go to the polls to vote in the parliamentary election is a striking message to Social Democratic Party (SDP) leader Davor Bernardic and voters on the left.

"I didn't have time to see his interview because I was in Rijeka. I think that that is a striking message for Davor Bernardic, and for voters on the left," Plenkovic said when asked to comment on Milanovic's statement about considering not to go to the polls on 5 July for the reason of impartiality.

Considering Milanovic's statement that there would not be the usual consultations after the election, Plenkovic said that if voters give the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) their confidence, after the election the party would talk with potential partners.

"As usual, we will seek 76 signatures and when someone has 76 signatures regardless of the model of consultations, everything is clear," Plenkovic said.

Asked whether his position as prime minister was an advantage in the parliamentary election, Plenkovic claimed that in the last campaign he was not in government yet HDZ won then too.

"The theory of separating the party from politics does not exist. For example, after a president is elected he is no longer a member of any party hence he has the liberty to say he won't go to the poll and support Bernardic who had strongly supported him to become president," concluded Plenkovic.

ZAGREB, May 20, 2020 - Social Democratic Party leader Davor Bernardic said on Wednesday that after the election victory of the SDP-led coalition, ten years of revitalizing Slavonia and Baranja would ensue.

"The people here do not deserve to live in poverty. Our task, through the Slavonia 2030 program is to revitalize Slavonia and Baranja in ten years, to increase agricultural productivity twofold, to ensure subsidies for the smallest. To ensure so that they can place their goods and not be racketeered by retail chains and to boost industry," Bernardic said in Vukovar during his election trail.

To show that that is possible, Bernardic pointed out the example of Nova Gradiska Mayor, Vinko Grgic of the SDP who, as he said, had provided the town with investments valued at HRK 2.5 billion.

"Nova Gradiska is becoming a leader in Slavonia and people elected Grgic not because he is good looking and capable but because they decided to vote for themselves," Bernardic underlined.